As far as I currently know, three hypothesises prevail about the origin of the name 'Hamels', which I would like to call respectively the French*, the Frankish* and the Irish connection.
This hypothesis postulates that the name 'Hamels' is derived from 'hamel', which is the ancient form of current French 'hameau', which means 'small village' or 'hamlet'.
And indeed, this hypothesis is backed up by Ed. H. Joseph Hamels in the introduction of his book 'La famille Hamels'. In medieval French, a lot of words ended with '-el' (singular) and '-els' (plural) in the written language. This '-els' termination (just like the '-ols' or '-als' termination) seems to have been vocalised as 'ou' (same sound as in English 'you') and later as 'o' (as in English 'bone').
Gradually, the written language reflected the spoken language, so that the plural '-els' evolved into '-iaus' and '-eaux'. Finally, to make things simpler, the singular took the same termination as the plural and became '-eau'. For instance: 'chapel' ('hat') > chapels > chapeaux > chapeau and indeed hamel > hamels > hameaux > hameau. Thus, one would then say 'li Hamels', meaning 'the Hamels', i.e. 'the people from the hamlet'. It has to be noted that the root 'ham-' of hameau and hamlet derives from the Old High German 'haim', meaning 'home', actually 'enclosed land' from Old German 'hemmen', i.e. 'hinder'. This root is to be found in a lot of village names in the Belgium, the North of France and Germany, e.g. 'Neerheylissem' from 'Heylishem', 'the village of Heylis' (a persons name).
The issue with this approach is that the surname 'Hamels' is uncommon in France, contrary to 'Hamel' which is fairly popular, especially in Picardy, where even a village is named 'Le Hamel'.
Conversely, our surname is more frequently encountered in a contiguous area that covers the northeast of Belgium, the southeast of The Netherlands and the Land of Rheinland-Westfalen in the middle west of Germany. References to Prussia are to be accounted for by the fact that this name, which actually designates a region in the northeast of Germany that borders Poland, was used for the whole of Germany in the nineteenth century.
Here, the origin of 'Hamels' is supposedly derived from the Old High German 'hamal' or the Old English 'hamol' which signifies 'scarred' or 'mutilated' or even 'crooked'. According to the British Hammill Family site, it has been suggested that the sense 'scarred' could derive from tattooed faces of 'holy men' and ' blue men' in ancient days (although I do not quite understand what is meant by this). Probably with regard to the second sense, 'hamel' (Dutch) and 'hammel' (German) mean 'wether sheep'. The Dutch word 'belhamel', in English 'bell-wether', designates a male sheep which is the leader of a flock and -- obviously related to the third sense -- a scamp.
(Update 15-Aug-2001):Hanks & Hedges suggest that 'hamel' could be used as a nickname or metonymic occupational name for a shepherd. According to Ivo Puelinckx,"the Leuvener dialect has transformed 'hamer' (a hammer) into 'hamel', supporting the thesis that the surname 'Hamers" evolved 'into' 'Hamels',which is an additional etymology for our surname."
[See related story on Josine Hamels.] Josine HamelsHowever, a lot of 'van Hamel' live in The Netherlands and Belgium, whose name means 'coming from Hamel', which suggests that 'Hamel' or related names designate a location. I have already mentioned Hameln in Nieder Sachsen (remember the Pied Piper legend), but recently (see acknowledgements) a new candidate came up: the present-day hamlet of Hamal near Tongeren (French and Dutch spelling, in 947: 'Hamale', then 1240: 'Hammale', and 1249: 'Hamele'), which is spelled and pronounced 'Hamel' in Flemish. Hamal was part of the historical county of Loon, a feud belonging to the Principality of Li�ge. 'Hamal' also refers to a local castle and aristocratic family ('mon saignor Ustasse le jovene chevalir de Hamale', 1280)As Ivo Puelinckx told me, the castle was occupied by the lords of Hamel and Elderen.Willem, lord of Hamal, together with the count of Loon (currently Belgian province of Limburg), defended the castle of Rummen. After the fall of the castle in 1365, the county of Loon became a part of the principality of Li�ge, which was acknowledged as such by the Emperor of Germany in 1366. Willem of Hamal himself became a counselor of the prince-bishop of Li�ge.
The link between the Hamal and Hamel family is demonstrated by the following text (Brabantica, vol. 8, footnotes on pp. 127 & 128): 'Les van Hamel, une branche des Hamal, font partie du magistrat de Diest des le second quart du XVe siecle. Stas van Hamel avait ete investi de ce fief le 17-8-1497, apres deces de Jacob, son pere. ... Jacob van Hamel fut �chevin � Diest entre 1531 et 1551. Il epousa Agnes Witten.' As many authors assert, the Hamel, Hamels, Hammel, Haemels, etc. are akin, so that we could argue that somehow we are related to the Hamal locality or even family. Note that there is also a place named 'Het Hamel', in the vicinity of Diest.
Now, what is the meaning of the place names Hameln, Hamal or Hamel? There are three explanations:
1� Derived from 'ham': a meadow surrounded with water or fences, such as in the meander of a stream (from the Old German 'hemmen', meaning 'contain', see also the etymology of 'haim' in the French Connection section above), and 'maal': an assembly of people or magistrates (from the Medieval Latin 'mallum', meaning 'mud floor'). The combination 'Hammaal' then means something like 'the forum in the bend of the river'. Specifically, 'Hameln' is interpreted as 'a water meadow' by Hanks & Hedges.
2� Same derivation as 1�, but with 'haag' (a hedge), in stead of 'ham', giving 'Haagmaal', 'a forum in the bushes' (notice the similarity with 'O'Haeghmael' of the Irish Connection hypothesis)
3� From Old German 'halha', a wedge of highland, and 'malha', a craterlike depression, giving 'Halmaal', 'a raised ground adjacent to a dip'.
The homonymity between 'hamal', a physical attribute, and 'hamal', a place name, is probably just a coincidence, but is nonetheless noticeable.
One has to be aware that the spelling of the names frequently changed through the years: E.g. (not chronologically) Hamels, Haemels, Hamers, Hamel, Hammel, Hammelle, Ameele, etc. During the Renaissance the name was even latinised into 'Hamelius' ! Hypocorisms (pet names) like 'Hamelin' were also common (A. Carnoy).
In all cases, the final '-s' of Hamels could be interpreted as a plural ('the hamels') or perhaps as a Germanic genitive, meaning 'son of' or 'coming from' (compare other Flemish and Dutch names like Peters, Barents, Jans, etc.).
This explanation derives from the etymology of the Hammill surname, whose origin is definitely Irish (see the British Hammill Family site). The ancient name of O'Haghmail, designating a branch of Cenel Eoghain ( Race of Eoghain son of Niall of the nine hostages), evolved through a series of surnames like O'Haeghmael, O'hAdmaill, O'Hammil, O'Hamill, O'Hamil, O'Hamel, O'Hammel, O'Hammell, O'Hamell, Hamill, Hamil, Hamel, Hammel, Hammell, Hamell, Hamilton, Hamildon, Homildon, Gemmell, Gammell.
The idea is that 'Hamels' could be derived from the 'O'Hamel' and 'Hamel' form, again taking into account the plural or genitive case.
I wouldn't know what to conclude. I have no evidence to make a choice or eliminate options.
I only have the feeling that the Irish connection is the least plausible, perhaps because of the Gaelic origins of the name and I do believe that our surname is of Frankish / French descent. On the other hand, the French connection is questioned because nearly no Hamels are to be found in France. This leaves the Frankish connection, which is supported by the frequent occurrence of the name up to Munster in Westfalen.
I spent a lot of time searching for indications on the Internet, but without notable results. I think that additional information can only be found in libraries and archives, whose examination requires still more time and effort. The same conclusion is applicable to the extension of our family tree beyond 1650, in which Ed. H. Joseph Hamels himself did not succeed.
The solution is of course collaboration, i.e. use of our Family site to collect all available information and organising it into a growing family database...
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(Update 08-Sep-2001)At the start of the first century AD, the area covering the north of France, Belgium and the south of the Netherlands (delimited by the Rhine river) was part of the Roman Empire. At the start of the fifth century, Frankish tribes who were living north of the Rhine, crossed the river and invaded the above mentioned regions and the rest of Gaul. Although former Frankish raids had involved a lot of looting and murdering, this invasion was much more a mass migration with continuous and progressive integration of both Romance and Germanic culture and language, the admixture growing stronger the more they went southwards. As a result, a new language, French, appeared and became predominant in France, whereas it co-extisted with the original Frankish in Belgium and the south of the Netherlands.
So it seems to me now that the "hameau" hypothesis would better be called "The French Connection" and the "hamal" one "The Frankish Connection", where "French" and "Frankish" refer to the language, rather than to the peoples.
Mr Theo Monten, President of the Touring Association of H�l�cine, for his kind guidance throughout our family tour on 22 July 2001.
Mr M. Dewolf, curator of the Armand Pellegrin museum of H�l�cine.
Mr Ivo Puelinckx, Leuvener genealogist, for having pointed out most interesting new tracks related to the origin of our family name.
Information found in the book "Neerheylissem en 1796 et 1840 -- Ses maisons, ses rues, ses habitants", by Jean Delande, 1999" confirms that Daniel Hamels, our oldest known ancestor, has lived in the rue d'Ardevoor, which then was called the "Heerenbaan" in Flemish (Dutch) and "rue du Seigneur" in French.
Actually we have evidence that three of his great-grandsons (Jean-Martin, Jean-Fran�ois, and Walter) had their own farm in the Heerenbaan (Jean-Martin lived in the "Yellow Farm"). Most likely, the preceding lineage since Daniel, i.e. Walter and Hubert, had been living in the same street as well, inheriting and extending the premises from oldest son to oldest son, as it was customary in those days. Andr� Hennot, living in farm "Number 8" of the street is currently the last descendant of this local lineage (he descends from Jean-Fran�ois, his mother was Sylvie Hamels).
The descendants of the younger sons at each generation had to look elsewhere for a house, the most luckiest (?) by marrying a rich farmer's daughter, the others by acquiring or building their own farm after saving money they earned as farm workers or craftsmen. For instance, some Hamels lived in the south of Neerheylissem, in the "rue des charrons" (cartwright street).
The information in Mr. Lalande's book was mainly collected from the census of 1796, which actually was conducted by one of our ancestors, Toussaint Hamels "the second" who was a member of the village council. He must have been a remarkable man: he first married Anne Catherine van Leeuw in 1770 and had nine children, the last one being born in 1791 (the third child, Toussaint "the third", was my ancestor); then, at the age of fifty-six, he married Marie Joseph Lallemand, and had three children before he died in 1805 (his last one, Henri, is the ancestor of our American cousins).