Jersey

• FRENCH Almanac de Jersey 1788-1839. Almanac Historique 1790-1794. L'Almanac de la Chronique de Jersey 1814-1950. Almanac de la Nouvelle Chronique 1876-1917 (then merged with La Chronique de Jersey).
• ENGLISH The British Press and Jersey Times Almanac 1862-1910 became The Royal Almanac 1911-1913. The Jersey Express Almanac 1866-1936. The Jersey Evening Post Almanac 1914-1974.
• Lists of Island and Parish Officials, Ships, Sea Captains and Shipping Companies. Advertising and Commercial Directories are incorporated from 1860s. From 1880s they also summarise the main news of the year. As a rule of thumb, the earlier the edition, the less information they contain. Available at the Société Jersiaise and the Jersey Library Reference Section and the Jersey Archive from 1864 -1997 (see below).

Jersey Archive

Opening times

Jersey Heritage

Jersey Library

Jersey Family History Centre of the L.D.S. Church

Société Jersiaise

Channel Islands FHS

• Published Guide: Marie-Louise Backhurst - “Family History in Jersey”(CIFHS Publications 1991).
• A Glossary for the Historian of Jersey - C. N. Aubin (Jersey Archives Service, 1997)
• John Fuller's Channel Islands Genealogy - includes many useful links and a surnames list of Channel Islands research interests.
• Books about the Channel Islands Part of Charles Picot's Pages - a book list of essential reading about the Islands.

• Published Guide: Balleine's Biographical Dictionary of Jersey (Staples Press 1948). First edition out of print but in many libraries worldwide including L.D.S. catalogue. 2nd Edition (with added illustrations) published La Haule Books 1996. Available to subscribers only, write to La Haule Books Ltd, West Lodge, La Route de la Haule, St Brelade, JERSEY JE3 8BD for catalogue.
• The Société Jersiaise have prepared a 2nd Biographical Dictionary covering prominent Islanders who have died since 1948 and others that Balleine missed - edited by Francis Corbet.
• Prominent figures, such as members of the political dynasties of de Carteret, Le Hardy and Le Geyt also feature in the Dictionary of National Biography as do a few military men with Jersey backgrounds.

Town

Country Parishes: Church of England

Country Parishes Non-Conformist

• Charles Picot has put Joan Steven's Chronology of Jersey on his Website.

Town

Country Parishes: Church of England

Country Parishes: Non-Conformist

Court Records

Royal Court of Jersey subdivisions

• Historical Descriptions of the Channel Islands from Grose's The Antiquities of England and Wales, published in 1777 .

Many older Channel Islands houses have dated stones including the initials of the owners - these are in the process of being located, identified and indexed at the Jersey Datestones Project.

Given that space is limited on a small Island, Jersey folk have spread all over the world including, of course, Great Britain. They have travelled to America since early times - hence New Jersey! Notable families now established abroad include the Poindexters of America. Fishing the Newfoundland Banks for cod led to many enclaves being set up at the Gaspé in Canada. See also John Sullivan's Newfoundland and the Jersey Crisis of 1886. Many Jersey surnames can be found in any Australian or New Zealand telephone book.

Heritage Books are the publishers of Marion Turk's Quiet Adventurers Series which are due to be reprinted in January 1999 (two books about American and Canadian families with Channel Islands roots).

• The Jersey Family History Forum: A Beginners Guide compiled jointly by all the local Research Centres.
• Revised URL for John Fuller's Channel Islands Genealogy includes a surnames list compiled by John Fuller of the Channel Islands-related research interests of a number of Internet and CompuServe users and many useful links.
• Research in the Channel Islands FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions). Civil Registration Details, Research Libraries and Family History Societies plus FAQs Links Page.
• Channel Islands Family History: Reading the Records
• Useful articles in CIFHS Journals: A List of Lists and Their Locations No. 73 (Feb 1997) pp. 280-283 and Indexing Jersey's Records: A Progress Report No. 76 (October 1997) pp.363-366.

Tutelles - guardianships. Procurations - powers of attorney. These records are in French and are only available at the Public Registry in Jersey.

Payne's Armorial of Jersey was published in 1859. Contains many family trees and origin legends as well as Coats of Arms. Copies are held by all of Jersey's Libraries and the LDS. Not as accurate as it could have been, the publisher relied on submissions from the families represented, who paid to appear.

• The Société Jersiaise has a History Section.
• The Jersey Heritage Trust Index Page (for Jersey Museum details)
• The 'text book' history of Jersey is G.R. Balleine's History of Jersey, revised by Marguerite Syvret and Joan Stevens in the 1970s and reprinted in 1998 by the Société Jersiaise with a new chapter by Colin Powell. Published by Phillimore.

• Lé Jèrriais by Geraint Jennings (The History of Jersey Norman-French).

• Google 'Map of Jersey'
• The Godfray Map of 1849: An Index of House Owners by Roland de Caen
• Old Maps of the Channel Islands from 1683 and 1784.
• Detailed maps can be found in 'Jersey Place Names' by Charles Stevens, Jean Arthur and Joan Stevens. Published 1986 Société Jersiaise.
• The essential modern map to find your way around Jersey is Perry's Guide. Available from any bookseller in map form; as an A5 (black and white) booklet or the Professional Edition, an A3 size coloured book.
• The Jersey Archive holds the original of the 1795 Richmond map and copies of the Godfray map, ordnance survey maps and aerial photographs.

• The Jersey Merchant Seamen's Benefit Society. 19th Century Seamen's records page which includes links to other relevant sites.

Jersey has always had its own organised defence force, which eventually became the Royal Jersey Militia. Service was compulsory for all able bodied men from age 16 to 60. It was based on a parochial system until the 19th Century when four main Regiments were created - the Town, West, North and East Regiments, there was also a limited amount of artillery and cavalry. During the Napoleonic Wars a census was taken of all the men available to defend the Island in the event of an invasion. More information at General Don's Militia Survey of 1815.

A handful of other Militia Lists have been printed in the Annual Bulletins of the Société Jersiaise most notably St Saviour and St Peter in the 17th Centuries.The Library of the Société Jersiaise has a collection of original Militia Commissions and the Jersey Museum Service are responsible for the R.J.M. Museum at Elizabeth Castle, St Helier.

A British Garrison was nearly always present in Jersey. Lists have been prepared, which begin around the end of the 17th Century in the collection of the Library of the Société Jersiaise. One at Alderney and The British Army makes reference to many that could also be found in Jersey.

Jersey was Occupied by the German Army during most of WW II (1941-1945) see Brian Ahier Read's A Jersey Schoolboy Remembers the Occupation and the Jersey Archive site about the surviving Registration Cards and photographs from 1941.

The Jersey Archive holds all Royal Jersey Militia Nominal Rolls, Royal Jersey Militia Pay Lists, Royal Jersey Militia Pay & Mess Rolls and Royal Jersey Militia Attestation Forms from 1929-1940.

The original Garrison registers from 1784 to 1817 are also held by the Jersey Archive

A function of the Royal Court of Jersey but no indices exist, with the exception of many of the Huguenot arrivals fleeing from religious persecution in France in the 17th Century. Lists in the Annual Bulletins of the Société Jersiaise.

FRENCH Le Magasin de L'Ile de Jersey 1784-85, Le Gazette de L'Ile de Jersey 1786-1796, Chronique de Jersey 1814-1959. La Nouvelle Chronique 1855-1916 (then merged with La Chronique de Jersey). L'Impartial 1831-1845, Le Jersiais 1838-1843, Le Constitutionnel 1820-1854 at the Library of the Société Jersiaise.

ENGLISH The British Press and Jersey Times 1862-1910 now being filmed and the Jersey Evening Post 1914 to date at the Jersey Library Reference Section.

The Jersey Archive holds the admission registers for the Jersey Home for Girls/Jersey Female Orphans Home from 1862 - 1959 and the Jersey Home for Boys/Jersey Industrial School from 1867 - 1984 (Please note there are 100 year closures on the admission registers).

The States of Jersey Home Page: The States Assembly

The Library of the Société Jersiaise contains printed volumes of Ordres du Conseil 1536-1867 . They include confirmations from the Privy Council (and/or the reigning Monarch) of Death Sentences, Transportation Orders and new Laws etc.

As the repository for all of the States of Jersey records, the Jersey Archive holds States Department records, the original Ordres du Conseil, Acts of Parliaments adopted in Jersey and States of Jersey Minutes. The Jersey Archive also holds the Lieutenant-Governor's Archives and the Bailiff's Archives (specifically from the German Occupation).

The Jersey General Hospital acted in this capacity but suffered two calamitous fires in the 18th and 19th Centuries, destroying most of the records. There are a few odd items at the Library of the Société Jersiaise.

The Jersey Archive holds the original Minute Books of the Comité des Pauvres, Hospital Committee Minute Books. Also the Jersey General Hospital Admission Registers 1839-1841 and1879-1948, Pensions to the Poor of St Helier, 1864-1898 and a Baptism Register at the General Hospital, 1938-1978 are held.

See also Church Records for surviving Chapel Baptisms.

• See Geoff Wright's Channel Islands Shipping Pages.

The Jersey Archive holds all wills and testaments of movable property held by the Judicial Greffe from 1660 - 1948 and they can be consulted individually, All wills and testaments have been catalogued and are indexed under name on the Jersey Archive catalogue. The Wills and Testaments 1948-1960 are held at the Jersey Archive and can be searched under name.

These are Wills of Personalty (cash and personal possessions).Wills of Realty (from 1851) fixed property (houses, land, rentes and hypotecs) are at the Land Registry (see also Court Records).

Filmed by the L.D.S. and available to order from their Family History Centre network as: Microfilm Jersey Probate records, 1660-1965. 45 reels 0431261-0431306. Unfortunately they do not have the indices.

• Victoria College - The Pupils Register from 19th Century is at the Library of the Société Jersiaise.
• The Jersey Archive holds school log books and admission registers for 30 schools and also registers of the appointment of teachers (1888 - 1927 and 1970 -1975), and apprenticeship registers (1919-1950).

• Social Life in Jersey in the Early 17th Century by G.R. Balleine.

• The Channel Islands FHS St Helier, Jersey. The CI FHS Research Room is at the Jersey Archive - see Archives and Libraries.
• The Société Jersiaise is a Local and Natural History Learned Society. They now have a Bookshop online for local publications.

Printed Rate Lists (Liste du Rât) 1858 to date, Islandwide by Parish and Vingtaine (Parish Division), are available at the Library of the Société Jersiaise. They contain all of Jersey's landowners but not necessarily their tenants before the 20th Century. The CIFHS Research Room have a small sample plus a photocopy of a special Liste du Rât of 1736 which was an Islandwide levy on property owners to pay for a ship to protect St Helier Harbour.

The Jersey Archive holds Liste du Rât 1877 to 1970.