In the Craven Herald the Rev. S. T. Taylor-Taswell, M.A., writes: "The Waddingtons are a very ancient family, and trace their ancestry to a period prior to the Norman Conquest, to even Saxon times. The name itself is territorial, and signifies the town (ton) of the children (ing) of Wada, and may be traced in such places as Wad-how, Wadsworth, Paddington, and, strange as it may seem, in Padiham, the abode of Wada, since Pada and Wada were only variations of the same word. Their possessions extended over a large part of Yorkshire and Lancashire. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, sub anno 798, records a great fight at Whalley during Lent, in which, according to Simeon of Durham, Wada Dux was put to flight by King Eardulfus. Some tumuli near Hacking Ferry attest this battle. One of them has been excavated, and a model of it is now to be seen in the museum of Stonyhurst College." Further reading: WADA'S DEFEAT BY KING EARDULPH, AT BILLANGAHOH The first recorded spelling of the family name is thought to be that of Ogis de Wadinton.  This was dated 1169, in the “Pipe Roll of Lincolnshire”, during the reign of King Henry II, known as the “Builder of Churches”, 1154 - 1189.  Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation; in England this was sometimes called Poll Tax. (Source: SurnameDB) Hello! We are Leon and Anthony Waddington, members of the fourth generation of the “Waddingtons of Bendigo”, a loose description of the descendants of Amelia (nee Sutcliffe) and Robert Waddington who came to Australia from Lancashire, England in 1862.  Loose because there were and still are other Waddingtons in the Bendigo area but these Waddos were not known to our family and unfortunately no one, as far as we know, took the time to find out if we were related. We are working to record as much information about the family as possible not only to satisfy our own curiosity but also for the benefit of other “Waddos”, “Wads” and “Waddys”, present and future. At this stage we are concentrating on descendants with the family name “Waddington” which may be unfair to the families of the Waddington girls and so we suggest the girls develop their own history and link it with this one. We will start with the arrival of the emigrant Waddingtons, Amelia, Robert and Jane and then work our way through from the first generation to the fifth generation and hope we do not miss anyone!  But for the moment we have only published information about the emigrants followed by the first and second generations (with some gaps yet to be filled in the second) plus, where available the family trees of the third generation.  In the first generation, although Jane Alice Amelia was not born in Australia, we have included her information together with siblings Jessie Olive and Henry Fairbank. We have also added certificates that we have unearthed; most notably Amelia and Roberts marriage certificate as well as some first generation birth, baptism, marriage and death certificates, including Jane Alice Amelia’s birth and death certificates. Lou (Henry Louis) enlisted for World War I and  Fred, Harold and Jack all enlisted for World War II.  Their enlistment documents are also included. In our endeavours, we have been ably assisted by Leon’s daughter Anita Waddington.  Anita has been scanning documents and photos, setting up families trees and so on; for all of which we are most grateful! Since starting our research, we have been fortunate in that recently Leon was contacted by Jenny Barton who is the great granddaughter of Jane Alice Amelia Waddington.  Jane Alice Amelia came to Australia with her parents on the SS Great Britain.  It turns out that Jenny who lives in Buninyong (near Ballarat) has also been researching her family history and as the last place Jane Alice Amelia lived was Golden Square, Jenny called her daughter, Michelle who lives in Bendigo, and asked her to see if there was a Waddington living in Golden Square which is, of course, where Glenda and Leon live.  Jenny phoned Leon to introduce herself.  Since then Glenda and Leon have visited Jenny and husband Sam in Buninyong and Tony has spoken with her by phone and exchanged various certificates. So if you have anything to add to our family chronicle please contact Tony at oddwadd@gmail.com Certificates, photos, snippets of history and funny stories (we are Waddingtons after all!) will be most welcome. Best wishes Leon & Tony