Origins of surname
Our English sources suggest that this name originates in France and applies to someone from the commune of 'Les Roches' in Normandy. Why Normandy, however, because the placename is found elsewhere in France. Our French sources suggest that the name applied to someone who lived in a fortress on a rocky outcrop and originates in the mountainous central region of France. The name is now widespread in England and Ireland and the first Jersey families emigrated from the latter.
Early records
The name first appears in Jersey records in the mid-19th century.
Variants
- Roche
Family records
Family trees
Church records
- Roche baptisms in Jersey
- Roche marriages in Jersey (groom)
- Roche marriages in Jersey (bride)
- Roche burials in Jersey
Great War service
Sons of John Joseph and Emily Jane, nee Gavey
- John Roche (1879-1918) (St H) husband of Bertha Blanche, Private, Hampshire Regiment, killed in action
- Arthur Francis Roche (1889- ) (St H) ex-RMIJ, Private, Labour Corps
- Henry Hungerford Roche (1884- ) (St H) husband of Rosa, ex-RMIJ, Private, RJGB
- Lewis James Roche (1886- ) (St H), Private, RAF
- William Oscar Leonard Roche (St H), Private, Hampshire Regiment
Family wills
These wills created by members of the Roche 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
- Charlotte Roche of Youghal, Cork, Ireland Now of St Helier 26 January 1859 - D/Y/A/29
- Mary Roche, 1 Leominster Gardens, London - 29 October 1947, D/Y/A/118
Burial records
Family businesses
Family album
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
Almorah cemetery
Almorah cemetery
St John’s Church cemetery
St John’s Church cemetery
Surville Cemetery
St Matthew’s, St Lawrence
The grave of Great War casualty John Roche at Le Vertannoy British Cemetery, Hinges, near Bethune
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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