Origins of surname
Unsurprisingly this name was originally given to a native of Cornwall, and is derived from the old English Cornisc, a compound of corn- from the Celtic kernow, meaning 'horn' or 'headland', plus the adjectival suffix -isc".
Early records
Although the name appears in Jersey church records as early as 1602 with the marriage in St Brelade of Robert Cornish and Elizabeth Chevalier of St Mary, it is ignored by the compiler of our Comprehensive list of Jersey surnames. Robert, who is shown in the marriage record as coming from St Brelade, may perhaps have been an immigrant from England who settled in the parish. Robert and Elizabeth's daughter Susanne was baptised in the parish in 1603.
The Cornish families which became established in Jersey originated mainly in Somerset.
Variants
- Cornish
- Cornes
Family records
Family trees
Church records
- Cornish baptisms in Jersey
- Cornish marriages in Jersey (groom)
- Cornish marriages in Jersey (bride)
- Cornish burials in Jersey
Notable family members
Great War service
Sons of Charles Henry and Mary Jane Keyho
- Frederick Cornish (1892-1919) Private, Tank Corps, died and buried in Jersey
- Alfred Thomas Cornish (St H) , Private, RJGB
Sons of James Hughes Cornish and Mary McDonald
- James William Cornish (1886- ) (St H) Ordinary Seaman RNVR
- Sydney Philip Cornish (1889- )(St H) Corporal, Australian Field Artillery, wounded
- Albert William Cornish (1877-1914), born in Bideford, Devon, was killed in action on 19 September 1914, while serving with the 1st Battalion, Devonshire Regiment. Two of his three children were born in Jersey, his daughter Edna Irene only nine months before his death
Notes on our list, abbreviations used etc
Occupation records
World War 2 casualties
Family wills
These wills created by members of the Cornish 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
- Cornish : Charles , of Camberwell, co Surrey, now of St Aubin's Road, St Helier - 03/Mar/1846 , 06/Sep/1851 , D/Y/A/27/136
- Cornish : George William , of The Firs, St Mary - 20/Jul/1953 , 28/Jan/1956 , D/Y/B1/34/12
- Cornish : James Hughes , 12 Charles Street, St Helier - 19/Jun/1905 , 06/Feb/1948 , D/Y/A/119/22
- Cornish : John Philip , St Clement - 04/Jul/1911 , 02/Sep/1911 , D/Y/A/70/83
- Cornish : Mabel Mary , widow of Walter Thomas Pugsley, of No 32, Poonah Road, St Helier - 24/Oct/1958 , 03/Aug/1979 , D/Y/B1/304/35
- Cornish : Madeleine May Mary , wife of Cyril John Liron, of 18, Coastlands, Greve d'Azette, St Clement - 14/Jan/1976 , 14/Apr/1976 , D/Y/B1/238/18
- Cornish : Mary , nee McDonald, of 25, Grosvenor Street, St Helier - 13/Aug/1954 , 17/May/1955 , D/Y/B1/30/24
- Cornish : Mary Jane , widow of Edward Joseph Durham, of 3, St Mary's Arsenal - 29/Nov/1949 , 28/Jul/1954 , D/Y/B1/25/53
- Cornish : William King , of St Helier, gasfitter and bellhanger - 23/Apr/1887 , 09/Jul/1887 , D/Y/A/46/99
Burial records
Family businesses

Family album
Click on any image to see the full-size version
The Cornish family: Albert William, Jessie, nee Manning, and their children Hilda, Sidney and Edna. The family was living in Jersey, where Sidney and Edna were born in 1912 and 1914 respectively. Albert (1877-1914) and Jessie were from Devon, and Albert was a Company Quartermaster Sergeant with the Devonshire Regiment when he was killed in action in the early days of the Great War in September 1914
A portrait of an unknown L-Cpl Cornish by Ernest Baudoux
Sydney Philip Cornish, born in Jersey in 1889, the son of James Hughes Cornish and Mary, nee McDonald, emigrated to Australia and joined the Australian Imperial Force in 1916. He fought in France in the Great War. He should not be confused with Sidney Arthur Cornish, born in Jersey in 1912, who was from a different, unrelated family, and fought in World War 2
Sporting Cornish family
Alfred Cornish, now turned cyclist, with his father Charles. The date given for this photograph was 1903, but Alfred was born in 1890, suggesting that the picture was taken some years later
Family gravestones
Click on any image to see a larger version. See the Jerripedia gravestone image collection page for more information about our gravestone photographs. Images of gravestones in other cemeteries will be added progressively
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
The records are displayed 30 to a page, but by selecting the yellow Wiki Table option at the top left of the page you can open a full, scrollable list. This list will either be displayed in a new tab or a pop-up window. You may have to edit the settings of your browser to allow pop-up windows for www.jerripediabmd.net. For the small number of family names for which a search generates more than 1,500 records you will have to refine your search (perhaps using start or end dates) to reduce the number of records found.
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
A--B--C--D--E--F--G--H--I--J--K--L--M--N--O--P--Q--R--S--T--U--V--W--X--Y--Z