The Mallandaines, originally from the Normandy, Picardy and Brittany regions of France, were among thousands of French Protestants or Huguenots who fled to England to escape religious persecution. The first emigrants settled in London's East End, primarily in the Tower Hamlets of Stepney, Shoreditch, Bethnal Green and Spitalfields. Here, they became part of the French refugee community of master silk weavers.

The Malandain name appears first in Canterbury at the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. In London, the name occurs from 1703 onwards in the registers of the main French Church in Threadneedle Street. The records show that Malandain refugees arrived primarily from Fecamp, Le Havre and Picardy.

To date, the three branches have been traced back to the mid-to-late seventeenth century. Little is known of these early ancestors although some information has been obtained through the church registers and the Proceedings of the Huguenot Society.

The following links will take you to the earliest known ancestors of each branch. From there, you can move through the family pages of successive generations. As the family trees are quite large, we recommend you download the family trees to get an overview of each branch.