Welcome to BelbinMania
BelbinMania is a family history and genealogy website aimed at family historians researching their BELBIN ancestors and the many variant names, especially that of BELBEN, which until the early 18th century was interchangeable, rather than the separate name it has become.
The site contains two distinct elements. There are a selection of pages containing extensive record extracts of UK births, marriages and deaths; ideas on the origin of the BELBIN name; articles and gossip about anyone or anywhere past or present carrying the name and an interactive photo gallery of assorted BELBIN images from across the decades. New articles will be added to these static pages as time permits.
In addition, there is a BelbinMania Family Trees database which will include several UK BELBIN family trees with copies of associated photographs and documents linked to individuals in those trees. These family trees will gradually be updated over the coming months with some from Australia and North America.
BelbinMania is not a commercial site. It is an ongoing personal project of mine and as such, development is regrettably slow. The old site at belbin.net became dormant owing to an unhelpful ISP but I have now rediscovered my mo-jo and am starting again at a new ISP with the new domain belbinmania.com initially using old page material just to get things going. My intention is for all published information and data to be relied upon as being accurate but inevitably errors will unfortunately creep in, so please feel free to get in touch if you spot anything which looks wrong or out of place.
I have more data offline than is currently online. My interest in the name is such that I am happy to discuss and share research where I can about any BELBIN family, whether it is from the UK or overseas. My accumulated research, which lies partially sorted in my office at home in England, may contain information you are looking for. You, on the other hand may have information, documents, old photographs, etc. that I would be very keen to see and perhaps be able to publish here.
If you do wish to make any contribution such as providing some ideas as to the origin of the name, passing on some BELBIN family gossip or photographs, repeating family lore or submitting details of your BELBIN connections, then please get in touch with me, TERRY BELBIN, as I will be pleased to hear from you if you can help improve and expand on knowledge of our interesting BELBIN family history.
Let’s see if we can help each other. I hope you will enjoy the site.
TERRY BELBIN
Essex, England.
Belbin One-Name Study
For my sins, I also registered the BELBIN surname as one of some 7,600 study surnames with The Guild of One-Name Studies, a London based charitable organisation dedicated to promoting the public understanding of one-name studies and the preservation and accessibility of the resultant information.
The BELBIN One-Name Study is registered under membership No. 2417 and is a project researching facts about the surname and all the people who have held it, as opposed to a particular pedigree or ancestry and I am collecting data from anyone and anywhere in order to be able to publish this information for the benefit of not only people who are currently interested in the name, but also with the aim of trying to preserve it for future generations.
It has turned out to be a huge undertaking despite the BELBIN surname being a rare one. Anyone who wishes to assist by contributing information about the Belbins please do contact me via this site or via the Guild website. The variants of the name listed are all currently of interest. Other variants could include BULBIN, VELVIN and VELVEN, but so far it has not been possible to prove that this is the case.
Common variants of the BELBIN name
| BALBAN |
| BALBYN |
| BAYLBYN |
| BELB |
| BELBBEN |
| BELBEIN |
| BELBEN |
| BELBIN |
| BELBINE |
| BELBMAN |
| BELBON |
| BELBONE |
| BELBYN |
| BELEWINE |
| BELGIN |
| BELLBEN |
| BELLBEIN |
| BELLBIN |
| BELLBYN |
| BELLMAN |
| BELVIN |
| BELVYN |
| BILBON |
| BILBORNE |
The BelbinManiac
Family history was always a subconscious interest of mine but didn’t really take off until 1988 when I joined a London law firm situated a few minutes walk from the main record repositories (the then Public Record Office in Portugal Street and Chancery Lane, St. Catherines House for Births, Marriages and Deaths and the Probate Registry at Somerset House). It was a golden opportunity to explore these records and the more I found out, the more I wanted to find.
I was interested in home computers as early as 1984 and with the arrival of the internet in the 1990s I soon realised that a website was the new way to reach out to fellow BELBIN researchers. I created BelbinMania in September 1998 and although sometimes very much neglected, the site has been on the web ever since. What I failed to anticipate was the sheer number of people who would contact me and with family and work commitments taking so much of my time I gradually spent less and less time with the Belbins resulting in too many contacts remaining unanswered, for which I sincerely apologise. Thankfully, I am no longer working long hours in London and can at last spend much more time on this project, prioritising the rebuilding of BelbinMania.
For the record, I descend from one of the BELBIN families of Dorset. The furthest back I have been able to trace my line is to my 4 x Great Grandfather, Robert BELBIN who was born in Dewlish in 1729 and I am quietly confident that I will eventually be able to trace the family back to Sturminster Newton, a mere 13 miles down the road from Dewlish, and possibly thereafter link into family trees connecting to Newfoundland, Canada which has always been my aim. My family tree is UK Tree 1 in the Family Trees Database.
Robert BELBIN of Sturminster Newton signed this Indenture in 1703. Could he be my 5 x Great Grandfather?
What will you discover about the Belbins?
Despite its rarity, the BELBIN name seems to be everywhere. In England and Wales, between 1837 and 2025, only some 1800 people were born either with the surname of BELBIN or BELBEN, yet over the years I have discovered many stories about those who once carried our name to prominence and those who still do and I aim to include as many of these as I can in the Bits & Pieces page. Some of the more interesting stories will be in more depth and will appear on the Feature Pages.
DO YOU KNOW……..? CLICK below to find out.
Where in the World do BELBIN families live?
Belbins currently live in England, Wales, Scotland, Denmark, Germany, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA.
Belbin Websites
The internet is full of BELBIN websites these days. Below are links to some sites which relate to BELBIN genealogy and to others belonging to family members which may be of interest. Of particular note is the excellent BELBINS & MATTHEWS website of the late BRENDA BELBIN showing the descendants of William BELLMAN (Belbin) who was born c.1750 in Newfoundland.
If you find other interesting BELBIN websites please do send details.
The Leslie Gamelin Family Home Page
Belbin Family History
Halpin-Guild Ancestry
Tasmanian War Casualties
Photography, Printing & Website Design
Belbin Genealogy
Family Tree
Acknowledgements
Finally, before you go on to explore the site there are some people who should be recognised for their generous and helpful contributions in unwittingly persuading me to create it way back in 1998.
My special BelbinManiac awards go to:
The late PAT BAINES who did most of the legwork for the RECORDS pages
The late REG WRIGHT who provided chapters from his book THE YOUNGS OF ROKEBY
ANGELA BELBIN-WOOD who delved into the life and times of QUEEN MARIE OF ROMANIA
The late HOWARD BELBEN who researched the BELBINS OF STURMINSTER NEWTON
ED BELBIN who provided the name of the site when he declared that he suffered from BelbinMania!
And lastly, my brother, ROBERT BELBIN at Dorset Photographic who undertook a complete rebuild of this website using the latest web design software thus giving me renewed impetus to continue with the project.
