Beyl Surname
I haven’t found much about the Beyl surname online yet. I am still very early into my research on this line. Quick searches on the history of the name Beyl are yielding very few results, if any. This makes it difficult to determine where the name came from.
I’ve only found one website that provides any kind of description for the name, but it isn’t a reliable site for genealogical purposes. It is more of a touristy site that wants you to buy memorabilia with what they say your coat of arms is. Anyway, it said that Beyl is a Danish name that derived from the word bayer. Bayer means one who came from Bavaria.
However, I found that Ancestry.com lists the meaning of the Beyl name as a variant of German Beil.
Beyl Surname Meaning
So, naturally, I queried the site for the meaning of the Beil surname:
Beil Surname Meaning
In the little research that I’ve done on this line so far, I’ve found that the Beyl’s immigrated to the United States from France. So the question is, can I trace them from France to Germany? Only time will tell at this point.
Distribution of Families
Ancestry also shows a nice page with some simple statistics for the Beyl line in the United States. According to the United States Federal Census, most of the Beyl families lived in the north east region.
The New York Passengers List shows that most immigrated from Germany but some came from the Netherlands, Preussen, and Italy. So far I’ve only traced my line back to France. As far as Beyl Family Origin goes, 4 families came from Germany, 3 came from Netherlands, 2 from Preussen, and 1 from Italy per Ancestry.com.
They also show that there are 3 Civil War Service Records for the Beyl surname, all 3 on the Union side.
Interestingly, I found that one person in my line, Jacob Beyl, who was listed as an Unassigned Indiana Volunteer for the Union side and seems to have been injured in the war. I haven’t found much on that but will be doing further research to see if I can identify what happened.
Family Occupations
Ancestry reports that most of the Beyl ancestors were farmers. A good portion were laborers. I have found both in my line. There were also some Saloon Keepers as well as horse car drivers.
I did find a site that listed a couple of Beyl settlers in the United States during the 18th Century. One was Johan Peter Beyl who landed in Pennsylvania in 1747. Another was Johannes Beyl which landed in Pennsylvania in 1754.
I do not know yet if either of these are related to my line but will definitely be trying to confirm or deny this during my research.
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Beyl Members I’ve Researched So Far
Average Life Expectancy
Finally, it looks like the Beyl family life expectancy has been pretty close to that of the general public. Some died young, around 50 years old, while others lived to be around 90 years old. But the majority seems to pass away around 70 years old.
I know this is very little information to provide so far. But, like I said before, I only recently began searching this line and hope to add a whole lot more information in the near future.
It would be nice to know more about these ancestors. Where did they come from before France? Why did they immigrate to the United States?
I hope to find a ton of information on this line as it is particularly special to me. Have you found Beyl in your family tree yet? If so, I’d love to hear from you!
Even if you haven’t, have you found reliable places to research the history of your family name? I’d love to know where to go to find out facts about surnames that are accurate and can provide some of the history behind the name. Do share and let us know how you do it.
That’s all for now, I’ll check back regularly and update this page as I find additional information.
I’ll leave you with a common Genealogy phrase:
This packrat has learned that the next generation will value most is not what we owned, but the evidence of who we were and the tales of how we loved. In the end, it’s the family stories that are worth the storage. – Ellen Goodman, The Boston Globe
Happy searching!
~Kris
