Blaisdell Family National Association

Welcome to the Blaisdell Family National Association’s (BFNA) website.  The Association is a literary and educational private operating foundation, publishing Blaisdell Papers to preserve the family’s cultural and genealogical heritage as a reflection – like a window to the soul – of our nation’s cultural and genealogical heritage. 

Established in 1935 at York and Pemaquid, Maine, the BFNA is the fifth oldest surname organization in America.  While most of the family descend from Ralf Bleasdale, who came to America in 1635, there are eleven other Blaisdell and 6,200 related families who also have numerous descendants in the USA and Canada. 

The BFNA seeks to compile, publish and preserve complete and accurate genealogical records and related stories in the Blaisdell Papers, putting flesh onto genealogical bones to make history come alive.  Over 70,000 people are in the Association’s growing genealogical computer data base.  Photographs (including same person in different decades) and supporting documents are now being digitized. 

Ralf Bleasdale, a Puritan and a trader in wood, on June 4, 1635 left Goosnargh Parish near Bleasdale Village, Lancashire County, England, with his wife, Elizabeth (Parker) Bleasdale, and their three-year-old son, Henry, on the Angel Gabriel , landing at Pemaquid Point, now Maine, August 14, 1635.  The ship was destroyed in a hurricane the morning of August 15.   

The BFNA cooperates with other historical and maritime groups interested in recovering and raising the Angel Gabriel.  Periodic updates appear in the Blaisdell Papers. 

Copies of the first 50 years, 1935 – 1985, of the Blaisdell Papers can be ordered on DVD (2 disks) or on CD (11 disks) for $30.  Order from the BFNA, PO Box 444, Harrison, OH  45030.

Permission to digitize and post all issues of the Blaisdell Papers on the Genealogical Society of Utah’s website was granted in February 2008. 

Genealogical printouts   may be requested by BFNA Basic Members and by the general public at cost to cover printing and mailing. 

When anyone can not afford either a Basic Membership or a family tree printout of his/her line of descent, the Association will issue either or both at no cost for as long as we have the resources to do so.  Contributions to Association’s Endowment Fund enable us to be charitable. 

The Blaisdell Family National Association has applied to the Internal Revenue Service to be recognized as a 501c3 literary and educational private operating foundation, which would allow charitable contributions to be deducted on one’s Federal personal income tax.  Unless this determination is made by the IRS, gifts to the BFNA are not tax deductible.

Basic Membership to the Association is open to the public.  Receiving the June and December issues of Blaisdell Papers is a benefit of membership. 

For a yearly Basic Membership, click here or make $15 check payable and mail to:

Blaisdell Family National Association (or BFNA)

PO Box 444

Harrison, OH  45030

After one has become a Basic Member, gift memberships can be given to individuals or genealogical libraries for $12 per year.