Origins of surname
There are two possible origins of this surname, both are French, on Breton and one Norman. It may be derived from the Breton personal name Iodoc, a diminutive of Juidcaelh, meaning 'lord', and introduced by the Normans into England at the Invasion of 1066. Although the 1086 Domesday Book does not list the name, both 'Josce' and 'Iocius' are recorded in the 1150 rolls of the city of Lincoln. Alternatively the name may originate with the village of Josse sur Mer, in Calvados, Normandy.
There were no members of the family present during the German Occupation and the name may have died out in the island for a time, although there is one household listed in today's telephone directory.
Early records
Although the name has French origins, it came to Jersey from England. Valentine Joyce, the notorious leader of the Spithead Mutiny, was born to a military father in Elizabeth Castle in 1769, but they left the island when Valentine was young. It would be another 40 years before another family arrived and became established residents.
Variations
- Joyce
- Josse, found in Jersey but not recognised as a variant
Family records
Church records
- Joyce baptisms in Jersey
- Joyce marriages in Jersey (groom)
- Joyce marriages in Jersey (bride)
- Joyce burials in Jersey
Family trees
Family histories
- Valentine Joyce, Spithead Mutiny leader
- Thoughts of a Joyce researcher
Great War service
- Two grandsons of Daniel Joyce, who was born in St Brelade in 1816, and emigrated to New Zealand, where he married Eliza Tyler, were killed in France in the Great War in 1918. Daniel moved with his family to Fiji and his son William Henry Joyce (1845-1914) married Emma Eliza Fisher there in 1876, and they had 12 children, before moving back to New Zealand, and then New South Wales. Ernest Daniel (1885-1918) joined a Howitzer Battery in August 1916, and was killed in action two years later. His younger brother Norman Roy (1895-1918) was serving with the Royal Flying Corps when he was killed. He was a Lieutenant, but we have found no indication whether he was a pilot, or served in some other capacity.
Burial records
Family gravestones
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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
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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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