Origins of surname
When this page was created in 2015, this was one of the very few Jersey surnames for which we had been unable to find any information about its origins. Further research in 2023 by Mike Bisson has revealed the suggestion that it is of Norse origin and refers to a person who carried a spear.
The name is said to be a hybrid from of Gerhild and Gerwar, composed of two Ancient Germanic elements: gaizaz (spear, pike, javelin) plus hildiz (battle, fight).
Early records
The first member of the family to arrive in Jersey may have been Joseph, who came from Ploeuc-sur-Lie in north Brittany in 1891 and married Rosalie Guyony, also from north Brittany, at Trinity in 1896.
Joseph Marie's younger brother Felix followed him to Jersey in 1896.
Variants
- Gorvel
Family records
Family trees
- Descendants of Noel Francois Gorvel a longer version of an earlier tree, now deleted, much extended in 2018 to take it back to the 16th century
Church records
- Gorvel baptisms in Jersey
- Gorvel marriages in Jersey (groom)
- Gorvel marriages in Jersey (bride)
- Gorvel burials in Jersey
Great War service
- Francis Baptiste Gorvel (1884- )(Tr) son of Noel and Augustine, husband of Mary, Private, Dorsetshire Regiment, gassed
Occupation records
Family wills
This will created by a member of the Gorvel family is now held by Jersey Archive. By visiting the archive site and using the names, date and reference number 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
- Joseph Gorvel, 1 Salvandry Terrace, St Saviour - 16 July 1934, D/Y/A/96
Burial records
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
Almorah Cemetery
Les Quennevais Cemetery
St John’s Church Cemetery
St Brelade Church Cemetery
St Lawrence
St Lawrence
Almorah Cemetery
Family grave including Andre Gorvel, who drowned at the age of 19 while attempting to escape from Jersey during the German Occupation
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
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