The formation of a group of people dedicated to the research of Badham history and genealogy started in the late 1980s with a postal survey carried out by Huw Badham.

He attempted to trace people listed as Badham in UK telephone directories in order to identify the geographical spread of the name and to collate individuals' family trees. Links were formed with Peter Badham, whose long-standing interest was rekindled, and together they tried to reconstruct family trees and to locate the geographical origins of the surname.

Peter registered the surname with the Guild of One-Name Studies around 1990, maintaining and developing links with many interested individuals and producing a newsletter from time to time. He finally initiated the launch of the Society in July 1999 in the Badham heartland of Herefordshire, by inviting people to an informal meeting at which the Society was formed.