Origins of surname
This is a name from the Vienne and neighbouring departments in the centre of France. It is a diminuitive of the personal name Thor, and derived from taureau, the bull, suggesting a strong man
Early records
Although the name may have been present in different spellings in Jersey as early as the 12th century, the Thoreau family members present in the island in the 20th century can only trace their ancestors back to immigrants Pierre Thoreau and Anne Servant, who married in 1700.
Variants
- Thoreau
- Theroude, 1150
French variants
- Thorel
- Thorelle
- Thorreau
Family records
Family trees
Church records
- Thoreau baptisms in Jersey
- Thoreau marriages in Jersey (groom)
- Thoreau marriages in Jersey (bride)
- Thoreau burials in Jersey
Family histories
Family wills
These wills created by members of the Thoreau family are now held by Jersey Archive. By visiting the archive site and using the names, dates and reference numbers shown here, it is possible to view a copy of each will. You will have to subscribe to the Archive's online service to do this. To find out more about this collection, which covers the period from 1663 to 1980, and how to search for your family's wills there, visit our Jersey wills page
- Jean Thoreau of St Helier, bequeaths to the poor of St Helier, £10 sterling 2 February 1796 - D/Y/A/15
- Jean Thoreau, son of Jacques of St Helier, bequeaths to the poor of St Helier, £16 of the order 8 November 1800 - D/Y/A/16
- Jeanne Thoreau of St Mary, now of St Helier, widow of Edouard Le Maistre, desires to be buried in St Helier General Cemetery, bequeaths to the poor of St Helier 5s, to Edward Philip Binet a share in the Jersey Joint Stock Bank, makes other bequests of shares in the same bank to named parties - 27 January 1871, D/Y/A/35
- John Thoreau, South House, St Mary - 27 March 1943, D/Y/A/110
- Julie Thoreau of St Helier, desires to be buried in Grouville Cemetery, bequeaths to the poor of Grouville and St Helier £1 - 20 February 1875, D/Y/A/38
- Marie Thoreau, daughter of Jean, of St Helier, bequeaths to the poor of St Helier, £16 of the order, to Jean Thoreau, her brother, £100 sterling in 3% funds in the Bank of England makes further bequests of the same funds 26 November 1791 - D/Y/A/15
- Marie Thoreau, widow of Samuel Guillet of St Helier, bequeaths to the poor of St Helier, £20 of the order of the King 23 December 1805 - D/Y/A/16
- Mary Thoreau, Landes, St Ouen, widow - 20 July 1918, D/Y/A/78
- Philippe Thoreau of St Mary, now of St Peter, desires to be buried in the cemetery for all religions, St Peter, bequeaths to the poor of St Peter, 15s, and to Susanne Vautier 33 perches of land in Petite Pièce du Mont Fondan, St Peter, Fief es Hormans 23 October 1858 - D/Y/A/29
- Susanne Thoreau, daughter of Pierre, of St Mary, now of St Helier, bequeaths to the poor of St Helier, £6 of French currency 28 December 1796 - D/Y/A/15
- William Thoreau, Moreland House, Craig Street, St Helier - 12 January 1944, D/Y/A/112
Burial records
Family album
Tips
The church record links above will open in a new tab in your browser and generate the most up-to-date list of each set of records from our database. These lists replace earlier Family page baptism lists, which were not regularly updated. They have the added advantage that they produce a chronological listing for the family name in all parishes, so you do not have to search through A-Z indexes, parish by parish.
We have included some important spelling variants on some family pages, but it may be worth searching for records for a different spelling variant. Think of searching for variants with or without a prefix, such as Le or De. To search for further variants, or for any other family name, just click on the appropriate link below for the first letter of the family name, and a new tab will open, giving you the option to choose baptism, marriage or burial records. You will then see a list of available names for that type of record and you can select any name from that list. That will display all records of the chosen type for that family name, and you can narrow the search by adding a given name, selecting a parish or setting start and end dates in the form you will see above. You can also change the family name, or search for a partial name if you are not certain of the spelling
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New records
Since August 2020 we have added several thousand new records from the registers of Roman Catholic, Methodist and other non-conformist churches. These will appear in date order within a general search of the records and are also individually searchable within the database search form
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