Origins of surname
The surname is derived from avril, the French word for the month of April, and would have been applied to someone born in that month. However, its frequency compared with names based on other months suggests that it had a wider meaning, signifying 'a new beginning', as one would associate with Spring.
Early records
The name arrived in Jersey from the north coast of Brittany at the very end of the 18th century, somewhat earlier than names linked to the families of itinerant farmworkers, but probably still associated with the influx of Breton labourers.
Variants
- Avril
- Avrill
Family records
Family trees
Church records
Avril
- Avril baptisms in Jersey
- Avril marriages in Jersey (groom)
- Avril marriages in Jersey (bride)
- Avril burials in Jersey
Avrill
Occupation records
Burial records
Family wills
These wills created by members of the Avrill/Avril 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 1948, and how to search for your family's wills there, visit our Jersey wills page
- Elizabeth Avril of St Ouen - 2 June 1888, D/Y/A/47
- François Avril of St Helier, desires to be buried in St Helier, bequeaths to the poor of St Helier, £1 18 August 1849 - D/Y/A/27
- Philippe Avril of St Helier, desires to be buried in St Helier's Cemetery, bequeaths to the poor of St Helier, 5s 7 January 1847 - D/Y/A/26
- Thomas Avril, St Ouen, bequeaths to Thomas William Avril Les Vaux de Coin, La Petite Cueillette, St Ouen to Francis Philip Avril Le Champ de Petit Vautier, La Grande Cueillette, St Ouen - 18 June 1927, D/Y/A/87
Family album
Family businesses
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
St Ouen parish cemetery
St Ouen parish cemetery
St Ouen parish cemetery
St Ouen parish cemetery
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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