Jane LE GRESLY (1823-

[Ken Rob]

I have found Jane LE GRESLY, 19, in St. Ouen's 1841 census living with Edward LE GRESLY, 66, carpenter, b. Jersey.  11 spaces higher is Ann LE GRESLY, 65.  Are Edward and Ann grandparents of Jane (and they're living apart because of feuding)?  I presume they are too old to be Jane's parents.  Of course I should probably not jump to a conclusion about any relationship at all, since I have nothing  more than like surnames.

Does anyone have this LE GRESLY family?

Some time before 1851 census Jane marries Joshua LAFFOLEY and they have four children.

Ken in California

[Hill]

Hi Ken

First, I think you may have mis-read the name as I think it more likely to be Le Gresley.

St Ouen was a hot-bed of Le Gresley's so I think at this time perhaps better to ignore any possible relationship between Ann and Edward.

I did a search for a marriage between Jane and Joshua but for every Jane I found there wasn't a corresponding Joshua on the same page. The best I can come up with is a marriage in St Ouen for Jeanne Le Gresley and on the same page is Josue Laffoley. I will call in at the Registry Office in the next day or two and have a look at the certificate, that will then give us Jeanne's father and I can progress from there.

The marriage reference is St Ouen's marriages, Nov 1842 to Apr 1861 on page 72.

Stewart

[Hill]

Hi Ken

I can now confirm that it is indeed the right marriage. The details are:

5th June 1850
Josue Laffoley, aged 27 and a Cultivateur. Born in St Peter's and resident in the same Parish. Father - Josue Laffoley and also a Cultivateur.

Jeanne Le Gresley, aged 28. Born and resident in St Ouen. Father - Francois Le Gresley a Cultivateur.

The witnesses were Philippe Le Feuvre and Raulin Le Marquand.

I then looked up the birth of Jeanne and found that she was baptised 14th July 1822. Her father was Francois Le Gresley (son of Philippe of Val de La Mare) and Elizabeth Jean. The god-parents were Elie Hubert and Maria Jean.

The marriage of Francois and Elizabeth took place in St Ouen on 23rd September 1815. The record shows Francois (son of Philippe of Val de La Mare) married Elizabeth Jean, daughter of Elie of St Mary.

I then tried to find a birth for Francois but couldn't see one in St Ouen. I stopped there as I'm not sure how relevant this is to your research.

Stewart

[Ken Rob]

Wow!  ( I have seen sometimes that Jane is like a nickname for Jeanne - perhaps because it sounds more English.)

Thank you, Stewart.

[Ken Rob]

Thanks to Stewart's work, I was able to discover Jeanne LE GRESLY's family in the census and follow their history for a generation or two.

Jeanne was one daughter of 4 and she had four brothers as well.  One brother, Philip Francis LE GRESLY, born 1829- apparently received control if the family farm - 12 acres in 1851 census - and built it to 30 acres in 1871.  Philip was one of 8 and he had 10 children of his own - just one was a son, named Philip Francis also, born 1865.

Question - Was primogeniture in effect in reality, even if not legallly in the Channel Islands?  Was the property divided evenly (as a general rule) among the surviving children?

[Hill]

Hi Ken

Don't quote me on this as I'm not a lawyer!

In time gone by, if a person died intestate, everything went to the oldest son. I believe that was the law.

However, things have changed and we now have to have two wills, one to cover movable assets and one for immovable. If you die intestate it's even more complicated.

Have a look at http://www.viberts.com/content/10/index.html which explains the current situation. I'm not advertising that company by the way!

Stewart

[Ken Rob]

Hi Stewart,
I first noticed the fact that only one son was the farmer in census reports, and others would be "carpenters, shoemakers, fishermen" and the like.
It makes sense, in a way, because dividing property in ever smaller sizes each generation would ensure no one would have income sufficient to raise a family.
I also notice that a lot of the daughters were listed as "dressmakers."  Was that really an industry for export or were they merely making clothes for their own families?
Deeding land to one descendant made sure that others ended up making sufficient incomes to support a family by emigrating.
In Mexico the law keeps land in some sort of communal ownership which resulted in a lot of poor farmer families in the rural areas, and those parts are where most of the Mexican emigration to the States derives.
The United States has for years had the result of decreasing farm populations at the same time as increasing farm size where the work is done by machines (very expensive ones.)
All four of my grandparents were the children of farmers.  Today, I know of only one farmer of all the descendants of my grandparents' 15 children.
Ken

[Hill]

Yes dressmaking was an industry. You must have also heard of jerseys?? It's where the name comes from!

St Ouen was very rural and still is. There are people who live there who have never been into town (St Helier)  even though its only 6 miles away. Where the Le Greslet lived is now the island resevoiur.

Farms are still very small with enclosed fields. The main crops are now early potatoes which are sown in January and will shortly be dug up. Before potatoes became the main crop it was tomatoes and before that apples for cider.

Have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey for a history of Jersey and www.jersey.com for the current situation.


Stewart

[elvis]

Hi Hill
 I see you have worked on the Le Gresley family for Ken. Did you come
 across one Elizaberth Le Gresley born about 1839 later to be married
 to George Pitman