On the 9th August 1890, my great grandmother, Blanche Jehan was born. Like many other french families at the turn of the century 1900, Blanche arrived in Jersey with her family for work and to live. It might have been a temporary move until the family had earned some money or a permanent move as there was no work in their home towns.
The following timeline shows the events of Blanche’s life that I am aware of:
- 1890 – Blanche Marie Josephine Jehan is born in Plancoet, Cotes-d’Amor, Bretagne, France. The names of her parents are unknown.
- 1911 Census – Blanche is 21 years old and is living with her husband Pierre, a farm labourer, at Samares, St. Clements, Jersey.
- 1912 – Blanche, aged 22, gives birth to a son, Peter Gosselin.
- 1914 – Blanche, 23, gives birth to another son, my grandfather, Rene Jean Gosselin on the 25th April.
- 1916 – Blanche, 26, gives birth to her third son, Henri Pierre Gosselin.
- 1921 – Blanche, 30, gives birth to a daughter, Blanche Olive Gosselin.
- 1922 – Blanche, 31, gives birth to a second daughter, Antoinette Gosselin.
- 1924 – Blanche, 34, gives birth to another daughter, Genevieve Augustine Henriette Gosselin.
Map of coast of France, Channel Sea and Jersey – highlighting the close distance and route travelled by my ancestors.
The stars in the above image of the map show Plaine Haute (first star on left), where Blanche’s husband was born. Plancoet, where Blanche was born, St. Malo the possible harbour they left from to sail to Jersey and the island of Jersey. It is unknown how Pierre and Blanche met. Maybe it was on their travels by road through France. Maybe it was at the harbour or on the boat. Or maybe it was in Jersey? Whatever the circumstances, without that meeting my grandfather Rene would not have been born, nor my father, nor me.
That is all I have about Blanche’s life. Maybe you can provide more information. The following list shows some things I need to find out about Blanche:
- When did Blanche marry Pierre Gosselin?
- When did Blanche die and where is she buried?
- What were the names of her parents?
As I get ready to send this post I find an old note with two names that seem to be Blanche’s parents names:
her father – Eugene Marie Joseph Jehan- born April 1857 - Plancoët, Côtes-d’Armor, Bretagne, France
her mother - Blanche Félicie Marie LeClerc – born February 1854 - Plancoët, Côtes-d’Armor, Bretagne, France.
Although, I have not been able to confirm these details that I discovered on ancestry, they look pretty close to being the correct parents. It is always exciting to make new discoveries!
Thanks for stopping by 
Thanks Ramona, that’s really interesting. I had no idea our great grand mother came from Bretagne! Guess I do deserve my celtic name then!! How do you come up with all that info? Online? You’re not exactly down the road from jersey archives these days!!!!
Hi,
On the question of where and when your great grandmother died:
- the first place to check is the catalogue of the Jersey Archive. If she was still a French national in 1940 she would have an Alien’s Registration Card, but she might also have an ordinary registration card (what we call a blue card). It turns out that she has both.
- the fact that there is a card strongly suggests she survived the war. The Germans were careful to collect registration cards of the deceased as they had no wish for people to creatively alter them to provide fake papers.
- thereafter, if she died in Jersey she would be listed in the records kept by the Superintendent Registrar in Royal Square. This creates a problem, because you would have to manually search thousands of records. She may have died in St Clement (which would make it an easy search), but she may have ended up in the General Hospital, or if she was a Catholic she might well have ended her days at Hauteville (the home run by the Little Sisters of the Poor).
- HOWEVER: there may be a short cut. The Archive acquired the records of one of the island’s funeral directors including all its constituent companies a year or two ago, and volunteers (I’m one) are transcribing the records to be added to the archive catalogue. It’s still very incomplete, but there are some records now up to about 1956-7. But even that leaves your grandmother aged only 67, and if she lived longer you’ll need to carry out the manual search.
Hope this is some help.
James McLaren
Journal Editor, Channel Island Family History Society
James,
Many thanks for stopping by my blog and contributing such a wealth of information. I will certainly make an effort to research her Aliens’ Registration Card and her Blue card. I have ordered these before for other ancestors and they are invaluable sources of information. I now know that Blanche was buried in St. Clement’s with her husband, so I will have to make a point of visiting the graveyard on my next visit to Jersey next year, can’t wait!
Regards
Ramona