The Dardel Family

The Dardels originate from the picturesque shores of the lake of Neuchâtel, in Switzerland. As early as in the 14^th century, a Dardel is mentioned in the village of Villiers, in the Val de Ruz. Jehan Dardel, a miller from this village is granted in 1513 the exploitations of mills in Saint-Blaise, on the shore of the lake. The first Dardels are thus millers, but from the 1700's they are found in many trades, as officers (serving foreign armies), judges, surgeons, ministers of the (protestant) church.

The historical map on the right shows the churches of Canton Neuchâtel that were built before the Reform. Almost all places on the map have seen the birth or the marriage of a Dardel family member. Saint-Blaise is at the North of the Lake Neuchâtel, and Villiers is shown in red. Jehan Dardel the miller came down from Villiers in 1513 to settle in Saint-Blaise. In the first generations of his descendants (see genealogy), most of the individuals originate from one or the other of these villages or towns.

Three centuries later, in 1810, one of them, Georges-Alexandre Dardel, an officer serving the English King, is sent to Northern Europe to recruit more troops and falls in love with a Swedish countess. He is knighted by the King of Sweden and obtains the right to add to his name a nobiliary particle, either the Germanic "von Dardel" or the French "de Dardel", as he fancies. He returns to Switzerland in 1816, but his daughter Augusta and his son Fredrick establish themselves in Sweden in the 1840s and found the "Swedish branch" of the family.

See also the text published on the web site of the Riddarhuset, the "House of Swedish Nobility", with pictures of the knighting act, together with its text in Swedish.

Members of the Dardel family have emigrated to France as early as in the 18^th Century. However, most of the French Dardels settled in France about 100 years ago, or more recently. We also have cousins in Chile, Australia and many other countries, and hope to discover other "exotic" Dardels.

Several Dardels, living in a country of vineyards, established themselves as winegrowers, not only in Saint-Blaise, but also in Australia.

Other Dardels originate from Savoy, an Alpine province between France and Italy, and from other provinces of France. It was however not possible until today to establish a link between them and our own family.

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Genealogy

Our cousin Jean-Paul Dardel, who lived in Hendaye (South West of France, close to the Spanish border), has established a huge family tree, starting with our common ancestor the miller Jean Dardel. You have seen it exhibited at the reunion. Jean-Paul has also published (in French) a book on our family, incorporating the vast genealogical information he has gathered over several years. It contains many details and attached documents. The book was updated in March 2003. See details (in French).

Separately, François de Dardel, who lives in Paris, has transferred this genealogy on his computer and posted it in this site. The complete genealogy, starting with Jehan the miller, is now available on this site. Just click on the above link. There are now 18'000 web pages and over 750 pictures covering 5760 persons in the on line data base, including 18 generations of Dardels, waiting for you to check... and to report missing or incorrect data to us. The sheets of several ancestors have now biographic notes (in French, though).

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Among these descendants, you will find a Swedish painter, famous in his country: Nils Dardel (1888 - 1943). I have prepared for you a gallery of his works.