Origins of surname
Minier, Mignet, Menier and Meunier are all distinct family names in France, with different derivations, but one Jersey family can be found in various records with all four spellings across six generations. There is also a will with the spelling Miniée. We were uncertain which spelling to use for this page, but settled on Minier because that is the spelling found on several Jersey gravestones.
Early records
Farmworker Francois Minier/Meunier/Menier and his wife Marie Francoise Courcoue, both French, arrived in Jersey about 1870 and settled and raised a family of six children. This appears to be the only family to become established in the island and their family tree is listed below. The family name is spelt Menier in one baptism record, Meunier and Minier in different censuses, and the tree as submitted to us shows the first generation as Mignet.
However, there was a Minier family in St Lawrence a century earlier, which forms the second tree below. Francois Minier from France and Francoise Voisin were married in St Lawrence in 1778. Francoise died in 1840 and her name was spelt Meunier on her St Lawrence burial record.
There is a St Helier record of the marriage of Jean Le Meunier and Elizabeth Ozouf in 1688. Jacques Meunier, from France, married Marie Lihou of Guernsey in St Ouen in 1752, and Constant Le Meunier of Portbail married Rose Le Cornu of Coutances in St Helier in 1837.
Variants
- Minier
- Mignet (pronounced the same as the above)
- Menier
- Meunier - found in Normandy
- Lemeunier - found in Normandy
Meunier is one of the most numerous surnames in France - the database we use frequently lists 540,115 records (Marie, supposedly the most common of all French surnames is found 1.3 million times in the database). Along with the variant Lemeunier, it is the only spelling found in Normandy, but it is in 290th place in the list of most common names in the region.
Minier is the next most common spelling in France, appearing 71,356 times in the database; Menier is recorded 23,911 times and Mignet 4,304.
Only Minier and Menier appear in the Jerripedia database of births and baptisms, but Meunier and Le Meunier are found in marriage and burial records.
Whatever the correct spelling might be for the Jersey families, our main source for the derivation of French surnames is adamant that the spellings should not be considered as variants. It shows Meunier as meaning 'miller', Menier as a Brittany name for someone of Germanic origin, and Minier as a miner or someone living near a mine. There is no mention of Mignet.
Family records
Family trees
Church records
- Minier baptisms in Jersey
- Minier marriages in Jersey (groom)
- Minier marriages in Jersey (bride)
- Minier burials in Jersey
Great War service
- John Francis Henry Minier (1890-1917) son of Francois Rene of St L, Gunner, Royal Garrison Artillery, died
- Ernest Francis Minier (St L) husband of Emma Desire, Private RASC
Family wills
These wills created by members of the Minier 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
- Françoise Miniée, bequeaths to the poor of St Helier, £1 3 October 1844 - D/Y/A/25
- Réné Minier, Carrefour Jenkins, St Lawrence - 13 March 1911, D/Y/A/70
- Francis Minier, Salem House, St Lawrence - 22 April 1922, D/Y/A/82
Burial records
Family photograph album
Peter Francis Menier
Peter Francis Menier and his half brother Robert Francis Cunningham
Peter Francis Menier and his wife Mavis
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
Minier - St Ouen parish cemetery
Minier - St John’s Church cemetery
Minier - Les Quennevais cemetery
St Matthew’s, St Lawrence
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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