Origins of surname
A free man in Medieval times was somebody who was not simply a vassal of a Lord of the Manor (effectively a slave) but someone who owned or rented a smallholding, a small fishing boat or was otherwise capable of working for himself to support his family. Someone who had recently acquired such a status may well have become known as, for example, Thomas Freeman, and the name would have continued with his descendants.
Early records
The name was introduced to Jersey in the 1840s, but it was the 1870s before the first family, that of Robert and Julia Ellen Newberry, became established.
Variations
- Freeman
Family records
Church records
- Freeman baptisms in Jersey
- Freeman marriages in Jersey (groom)
- Freeman marriages in Jersey (bride)
- Freeman burials in Jersey
Family trees
Great War service
Occupation records
Family wills
These wills created by members of the Freeman 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
- Elizabeth Freeman wife of William Ambrose Case of 1 Hampton Place, Parade - 9 May 1945, D/Y/A/113
- George Freeman, 6 Aquila Road, St Helier - 17 September 1936, D/Y/A/99
- Maria Freeman, widow - 20 February 1868, D/Y/A/34
Burial records
Family album
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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