Gosselin family page
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Record Search
You can also select marriages or burials. Select the name you want and when the list of records is displayed you can easily refine the search, choosing a single parish, given name(s) and/or start and end dates. 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 recordsFrom August 2020 we have started adding records from non-Anglican churches, and this process will continue as more records, held by Jersey Archive, are digitised and indexed. Our database now includes buttons enabling a search within registers of Roman Catholic, Methodist and other non-conformist churches. These records will automatically appear within the results of any search made from this page. 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
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Origin of Surname
This is a variant form of an old French personal name imported into England in the forms Goscelin, Gosselin and Jocelin. The name, of complex origin, was very popular among the Normans, and has its roots either in the old German personal name Gauzelin meaning "a descendant of the Goths".
It is also said to be a diminuitive of the Germanic personal name 'Gosse', derived from gaut (of the people). It is a common name in Normandy today.
A third possibility is that Gosling originated as a nickname for a keeper of geese, in which case it would not be a variant of Gosselin but a separate name.
Early records
The surname Gosselin is first found in Jersey in the Assize Roll of 1309, where Peter Darcys and Guillot Le Keu are convicted of beating Colin Goscelin with blood and wounds. The heirs of Guillaume and Thomas Gosselin can be found in the Jersey Chantry Certificate of 1550.
From Jersey, the family moved to Guernsey and Sark - with Nicolas Gosselin being one of the original settlers of Sark with Hellier De Caretet in 1565, which is remembered in the naming of Havre Gosselin.
The family of Gosselin is, without doubt, of Norman origin, but at what exact period they settled in Jersey cannot be correctly ascertained. The first upon record in that Island is Robert Gosselin, a famous captain, who greatly assisted in rescuing the Castle of Mont Orgueil from the French in the reign of Edward III, and was, for his gallant services not only appointed Governor of the Castle by that Monarch, but presented with the arms since borne by the family (viz Gules, a Chevron between three Crescents ermine), as appears by the original grant under the great seal of England, supposed to be upon record in the Tower of London, or among the archives in Winchester. This Robert Gosselin some time after settled in Guernsey, where he married Magdelaine, daughter of William Mattravers, his Majesty’s Lieutenant in that Island. Berry, William, History of Guernsey, (1815)
According to Duncan's History of Guernsey, the Guernsey branch started when Hellier Gosselin, son of Thomas (a jurat of the Royal Court in Jersey in 1521), moved there, became HM Procureur in 1546, and subsequently Bailiff of Guernsey in 1549.
Variants
- Gosselin c1340
- Gosselyn 1515
- Goscelin, 1309
- Gosceleyn 1309
- Gocelin 1309
- Goslin
- Gosling, a separate family in Jersey from Gosselin, but acknowledged as a name variant
- Gosline
- Gossling
Related Places
- Havre Gosselin, Sark
Family records
Jersey family trees
- Descendants of Rogier Gosselin (1475)
- Descendants of Jean Francois Gosselin
- Descendants of William Gosling
- Descendants of Pierre Gosselin Added 2018
Church records
==Gosling
- Gosling baptisms in Jersey
- Gosling marriages in Jersey (groom)
- Gosling marriages in Jersey (bride)
- Gosling burials in Jersey
==Gosselin
- Gosselin baptisms in Jersey
- Gosselin marriages in Jersey (groom)
- Gosselin marriages in Jersey (bride)
- Gosselin burials in Jersey
Family histories
- Gosselins in Jersey and Guernsey
- Gosselin from Payne's Armorial
- Hellier Gosselin (1517-1579), Bailiff of Guernsey (1549-1562)
- Nicolas Gosselin, Original Settler in Sark 1565
- Joshua Gosselin (1739-1813), Greffier, Artist
- Admiral Thomas Le Marchant Gosselin(1765-1857), naval hero
- Gosselin researcher's notes
Great War service
Family wills
These wills created by members of the Gosselin 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
- Gosselin : Alice Maud , wife of Clarence Charles Henry, of Midhurst, Leoville, St Ouen - 08/Nov/1972 , 08/Nov/1972 , D/Y/B1/182/38
- Gosselin : Florence Maud , widow of Harold George Gosselin of Evadale, Undercliffe Road, St Helier - 22/Apr/1950 , 03/Jun/1950 , D/Y/B1/5/41
- Gosselin : Frank George Albert , of 26, Grasett Park, St Saviour - 06/Feb/1980 , 06/Feb/1980 , D/Y/B1/315/4
- Gosselin : Marie Anne , refugee in Jersey because of the Protestant Religion - 27/Apr/1737 , 25/Mar/1738 , D/Y/A/6/138
- Gosselin : Peter Eugene , of South View, La Rocque, Grouville - 27/Sep/1946 , 19/Aug/1960 , D/Y/B1/60/58
- Gosselin : Philippe , St Mary 21/08/1902 Bequeaths to Ann Jane Bisson a house and lands in St Mary and St Lawrence - Unknown date , 10/Oct/1903 , D/Y/A/62/91
- Gosselin : Winifred Olive , wife of Stanley George Robins, of 20, Clarence Court, Clarence Road, St Helier - 22/Sep/1977 , 22/Sep/1977 , D/Y/B1/266/10
Burial records
Family album
Click on any image to see full-size version
Rene Jean Gosselin (1914-1977) son of Pierre Marie (1885-1956) and Blanche Marie Jehan (1918-1990)
Pierre Marie Gosselin
Charles Gosselin, photographed by Ernest Baudoux
Edith Gosling (21) and Stanley Reginald Hall (22) were convicted of forgery by Jersey's Royal Court in 1912. Hall was sentenced to four months in prison with hard labour and Gosling to nine months
Blanche Marie Josephine Gosselin, nee Jehan, born in Plancoet, Cotes d'Armor in 1890, married Pierre Marie Jean Baptiste Gosselin (1885-1956). They had three daughters and three sons, born in St Clement and Grouville between 1911 and 1924
A postcard sent to Master H Gosling in 1904 ...
... and the picture on the front of the card
Family businesses
A card advertising William Gosling's Don Street livery stables (in the centre of town) in about 1890
1881 advert
Further Reading
- Gosselin, Geoffrey, Joshua Gosselin - water colorist, RGS, 1979
- Marr, LJ, Guernsey People, Phillimore (1984), entries for:
- Hellier Gosselin
- Joshua Gosselin
- Admiral Thomas Le Marchant Gosselin
- McClintock, David, The life of Joshua Gosselin of Guernsey 1739-1813, greffier and soldier, antiquary and artist, plantsman and natural historian, Toucan Press, 1976
- Duncan, Jonathan, The History of Guernsey, 1841
- Vice-Admiral Gosselin, pp649-651
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
Mont a l’Abbe cemetery
Mont a l’Abbe cemetery
Surville Cemetery
Surville Cemetery
Surville Cemetery
St Brelade Church cemetery
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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