About

I first became aware that branches of the Baynham family tree had been traced back as far as the 11th century through a chance meeting in the mid 1980s with someone whose grandfather had been a keen amateur genealogist.  Sadly, all I took away at the time was the fact that our tree’s roots lay in the Forest of Dean, an area I was aware of from a childhood family holiday.

My interest was rekindled at the end of 2012 when I saw old family photographs of my grandfather and his brothers as young men and learned something of their early lives. However, my father was unaware of any roots in Gloucestershire or Wales.

I wanted to know more, so began searching the internet and very quickly discovered that our Midlands branch was connected to the main Forest of Dean tree which did indeed continue back to the 11th century.

This was exciting stuff, but I didn’t manage much more than a brief trip to Mitcheldean and surrounding villages in 2013 followed by some occasional web-based research and book purchases.

Now that I’m retired, it’s time to pull together all these threads and start weaving a rich tapestry!

This website is intended as a repository for interesting stories of people and places, linked together, rather than an historical treatise – for that, I would recommend Dr A C Baynham’s excellent book “The Life and Times of a Forest Family: the Ap Einion alias Baynham Family” in which he links his branch (the Newnham Baynhams) to the main tree.

As this is a work in progress, comments, suggestions and corrections are all welcome.