Origin of surname
One source for the derivation of this name is the suggestion that it is an Italian surname of medieval origins, recorded in many spellings (see below) and that it is a derivative of the popular biblical personal name Jacob and the parallel form of James. The Dictionary of Italian Surnames suggests that the meaning of the surname may be "Beautiful James".
Another suggests that it comes from the Czech bílý, meaning ‘white’, or a derivative of the female personal name Bela (which also means ‘white’), denoting the son or husband of a woman so named. It could also derive from the Yiddish female personal name Beyle meaning ‘beautiful’ (related to French belle).
However, in the Jersey context the origins are almost certainly closer to home in France and it may have meant 'the beautiful little one'. Although the family still existed in Jersey at the end of the 20th century, it now appears to have died out, although it is still found throughout France, including nearby Normandy.
Early records
Although the tree below starts with Jean Belin of St Mary, it is probably more likely that he was born in France and was the first of his family to come to Jersey in the early 17th century, where he married Jeanne de Gruchy. Jeanne was the daughter of Gilles and Marie Romeril.
Variations
- Bella
- Belli
- Belin
- Bellini
- Bellino
- Belain
- Blin
Family records
Family trees
Church records
- Belin baptisms in Jersey
- Belin marriages in Jersey (groom)
- Belin marriages in Jersey (bride)
- Belin burials in Jersey
Great War service
Family wills
This will created by a member of the Belin family is now held by Jersey Archive. By visiting the archive site and using the names, date and reference number shown here, it is possible to view a copy of each will. You will have to subscribe to the Archive's online service to do this. To find out more about this collection, which covers the period from 1663 to 1980, and how to search for your family's wills there, visit our Jersey wills page
- Benjamin Belin 21 December 1767 - D/Y/A/11
Burial records
Tips
The church record links above will open in a new tab in your browser and generate the most up-to-date list of each set of records from our database. These lists replace earlier Family page baptism lists, which were not regularly updated. They have the added advantage that they produce a chronological listing for the family name in all parishes, so you do not have to search through A-Z indexes, parish by parish.
We have included some important spelling variants on some family pages, but it may be worth searching for records for a different spelling variant. Think of searching for variants with or without a prefix, such as Le or De. To search for further variants, or for any other family name, just click on the appropriate link below for the first letter of the family name, and a new tab will open, giving you the option to choose baptism, marriage or burial records. You will then see a list of available names for that type of record and you can select any name from that list. That will display all records of the chosen type for that family name, and you can narrow the search by adding a given name, selecting a parish or setting start and end dates in the form you will see above. You can also change the family name, or search for a partial name if you are not certain of the spelling
The records are displayed 30 to a page, but by selecting the yellow Wiki Table option at the top left of the page you can open a full, scrollable list. This list will either be displayed in a new tab or a pop-up window. You may have to edit the settings of your browser to allow pop-up windows for www.jerripediabmd.net. For the small number of family names for which a search generates more than 1,500 records you will have to refine your search (perhaps using start or end dates) to reduce the number of records found.
New records
Since August 2020 we have added several thousand new records from the registers of Roman Catholic, Methodist and other non-conformist churches. These will appear in date order within a general search of the records and are also individually searchable within the database search form
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