It started with a will, or rather the lack of a will. In 1981 May Winifred Peapell died in Bournemouth with no children and without making a will. Her father had fallen out with his brothers and she was not going to leave anything to the family. However, as she had left no will, the law requires the money to be divided between her living relatives. They needed to be tracked down and this led to the first Peapell family tree. They money was handed out according to laid down rules and an official need was satisfied.
Beryl Hurley’s mother (Ethel Maud Peapell) was one who had inherited a small sum from May Peapell. From this beginning Beryl spent the next 25 years developing the Peapell one name study and became a well known genealogical expert.
In January 2011 Kevin Hurley took over the study which is consists of large amounts of paper records and files with some electronic data. There is census information, indexes and details on births marriages and deaths, wills and lots of other records. The information includes variants.
The main names in the study are Peapell, Peapel, People, Peoples, Pepall, and Peaple
Peapell, People, Peoples, Pepall, Peaple are registered at the Guild of O
ne Name studies.