Origins of surname
The name may come from lis, French for lily, but given its prevalence in the far north of France it is thought more likely that it is related to the Lys, a tributary of the river Escaut, or a placename such as Lys-lès-Lannoy. If it does relate to the river, a possible derivation would be the Gallic liga for 'sediment' or 'deposit'.
Early records
The first record of the name in Jersey is the marriage of Jacques Lys to Marie Rousset in St Lawrence in 1714, which suggests that Jacques may have come to Jersey as a child with his parents, Pierre and Elizabeth Sorre, as Huguenot refugees. Although the majority of these refugees settled in Jersey before 1700, before Jacques' birth, some did not arrive until the early 1700s.
Although the family was never numerous, it was still present in Jersey in the mid-20th century, but now seems to have died out.
Variants
- Lys
Family records
Family trees
- Descendants of Pierre Lys
- Descendants of Jean Lys: Added 2019 This tree, from a different source, shows variations at the top from the earlier tree above
Church records
- Lys baptisms in Jersey
- Lys marriages in Jersey (groom)
- Lys marriages in Jersey (bride)
- Lys burials in Jersey
Family histories
Family wills
These wills created by members of the Lys 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
- Jane Lys of St Helier 29 July 1856 - D/Y/A/28
- Jean Lys of St Peter at St Lawrence, desires to be buried in St Lawrence Cemetery, bequeaths to the poor of St Lawrence, £6 of the order of the King 12 June 1815 - D/Y/A/18
- Philippe Lys of St Helier, bequeaths to the poor of St Helier, £16 of the order 27 February 1796 - D/Y/A/15
- Marie Lys, widow of Philippe Dolbel, bequeaths to the poor of St Helier, £16 tournois of the order of the King, to Marie Lys, her niece, £200 sterling of stock in 3% annuities 13 January 1790 - D/Y/A/14
Burial records
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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