HUGUENOTS-WALLOONS-EUROPE-L Archives

From:
Subject: [HWE] Introduction
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2003 11:12:01 EDT

I have just joined this group in the hope of finding out a little more about
my father's ancestry, which I have recently begun to research. His surname is
Belle, and years ago he inherited (I think from his grandfather) an old watch
which had been many years in the family and was engraved with the name Belle,
with an accent on the final 'e', so it would probably have been pronounced
'Bellay'. Unfortunately the watch was stolen soon afterwards, and apart from my
father's vague memories there is no record of the exact inscription. After
years in England, presumably the family grew tired of being called 'Belly' and
dropped the accent. My father was always told that the family were
originally Huguenots, and my great-grandfather was born in central London (St. Martins
in 1854) but I have not yet traced back any further - I am awaiting his birth
certificate, which took a while to track down as he was in the indexes under
'Bell', although his name is spelt properly in the censuses. Fortunately
Charles Theodore Bell is pretty unmistakeable!

I have not found any mention of 'Belle' as a Huguenot name but it seems
logical, given the obviously French origin of the name combined with family legend,
that the story of our origins is correct. As I am very new to this (although
I am a historian and familiar with old documents) I hope joining the list
will point me in the right directions for my future researches.

Pam Thomas (nee Belle)

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