Origin of Surname
This name is of Norman origin, introduced into England after the Conquest of 1066 as the personal name "Durant", it is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Durandus", and derives from the Olde French "durant" meaning "enduring", from "durer", to endure, last, itself from the Latin "durus", hard, firm.
As a personal name Durant and Durand were popular in the Middle Ages, recorded as "Durand" in 1115, Hampshire, "Doraunt" (1312, Yorkshire), and taken to mean "steadfast", and perhaps "obstinate".
The first record of the name is Walter Durand, which was dated 1196, in the "Pipe Rolls of Westmoreland", during the reign of King Richard 1.
The name is more common in Guernsey than Jersey, but both islands have records from the 17th century onwards.
Variants
- Durant
- Durrant
- Durrand
- Dorant
- Dorran
- Dorrins
Family records
Church records
- Durand baptisms in Jersey
- Durand marriages in Jersey (groom)
- Durand marriages in Jersey (bride)
- Durand burials in Jersey
Great War service
- Albert Eugene Durand (1890- ) (St H) son of Ferdinand and Alice, Corporal RGA, ex-RMIJ
- Emile Durand (1894- ) (Tr) son of Pierre and Anne Marie, Driver, RFA
- Felix Marie Durand (1894- ) (St L) son of Felix and Jeanne, Private, Dorsetshire Regiment
Occupation records
Burial records
Notable islanders
- Ralph Durand (1876-1945), diarist - Guernsey Under German Rule was published in 1946, the first publication relating to experience of life in the island during the German Occupation.
Family album
A postcard sent to George Durand from Brittany in 1937. The Durand family's Occupation registration shows Jeanne Marguerite Durand, nee Perennou, living at Villa Jeannette with her children Jeannette Louise (1930- ), Raymond Jean (1932- ) and Simone Georgette (1937- ). There was no registration for George - perhaps he left the island to serve in the forces
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
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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