HISTORIQUE













 

 

INDEX OF JERSEYMEN AND GUERNSEYMEN
OF THE GASPÉ COAST
Canada, Québec - 1000 surnames

 

The people of Jersey have contributed for a large part in the development of the Gaspé Coast, in Québec (Canada), and left their mark on language, religion, customs and history. Yet, Québec history books are strangely silent on the subject. From now on, this «Index of Jerseymen and Guernseymen on the Gaspé Coast» will make it easier to follow the trace of those settlers, and hopefuly help them find their place in the Québec collective memory. The index is mainly based on two sources of reference: Jèrri Jadis, a book written in Jersey French by George Francis Le Feuvre, of Jersey, and the genealogical research works of Marcel R. Garnier, published in L'Estuaire généalogique and L'Ancêtre. These two sources are complemented with the information contained in the Canadian Census of 1881. The comments and general reflections of George Francis Le Feuvre are a vibrant testimony of the fact that, in the 1960s, Jersey French was still very much alive on the Gaspé coast, spoken by Quebec's own population of Jerseymen, born in Jersey.

Tony Le Sauteur

REFERENCES!

George Francis Le Feuvre

George Francis Le Feuvre made many trips to the Gaspé Coast where he would visit all the Jerseyborn people he could meet. But, during the 1960s, he made what he called his last pilgrimmage, explaining that «La Côte» was the Jersey name for what the Canadians called Gaspésie. The notes he collected during this last circuit, and in other trips, are of great historical importance for Québec. These notes were published by Jersey's Le Don Balleine edition, in a book entitled JÈRRI JADIS. In this book, one can learn the names of Jerseymen who lived and died in Québec and were laid to rest in Québec soil, in anglican cemeteries (and a few catholic ones). One can read about the life of Jerseymen settled in Gaspé villages and, through the author's thoughts and comments, have a glimpse of the Gaspé Coast of the 1960s, so different from the «good old days», in Jersey.

Marcel R. Garnier

The results of Marcel R. Garnier's genealogical research on the life of Jerseymen and Guernseymen on the Gaspé Coast were published in L'ESTUAIRE GÉNÉALOGIQUE, by la Société de généalogie et d'archives de Rimouski and in L'ANCÊTRE, by la Société de généalogie de Québec. His writings are an invaluable source of information for all who are in search of a Jersey or Guernesey ancestor, who came to settle in Québec. One can find dates of arrival of pioneers from the Channel Islands, and the names of the places where they settled and worked.
Marcel R. Garnier's bases his genealogical documents on the catholic and protestant registers of New-Carlisle, Percé and Sept-Îles law-courts. Other genealogical works and marriage lists were also consulted, in the Quebec National Archives, in Sept-Îles, Rimouski and Saint-Foy as well as in the Gaspé Museum and in the Dalhousie Library, in New-Brunswick. Marcel R. Garnier is a genealogy enthousiast from Paspébiac, in Gaspésie. He owns a collection of more than fifteen hundred genealogies of pioneers from the Channel Islands come to settle in Québec and New-Brunswick between 1765 and 1940. Unfortunately, M. Garnier died on december 12th, 2006. His archives have been transfered to his sister, Mme Claudette Garnier () at the Association Gaspé-Jersey-Guernesey.

   Engin de recherche
Tapez un mot clé