Brehaut
This is a family found mainly in Guernsey but a couple moved to Jersey in the early 18th century and established a family which is still present today
The 1943 wedding in Australia of Nora Brehaut and Samuel James Allen McLarty. Nora was born in Jersey in 1912, the daughter of Nora Agnes Brehaut and an unknown father. Her husband was born in Victoria, Australia
Direct links to lists of baptisms, marriages and burials for the Brehaut family can be found under Family Records opposite. If you want to search for records for a spelling variant of Brehaut, or for any other family name, just click below on the first letter of the
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Origins of surname
The name is not found in our usual sources for French names but we have found it suggested that it derives from the personal name Brek-hari, which means literally broken army, but must have meant something else when the family name first appeared.
A commercial site suggests that the name originated in Lorraine, the far north-east of France, and gradually spread west, but we have not been able to substantiate this.
Early records
The origins of the Brehauts in Guernsey are somewhat obscure. It is believed that the family came from Brittany, there being de Brehaults in that part of France as late as 1668 . The story goes that the first Brehaut arrived at the island in a worm-eaten old boat.
The Brehauts have been established in Guernsey for centuries. The Extente of 1331 spells the name Brehault, according to the Ile-de-France or Parisian dialect which was adopted a century earlier as the correct French, whereas in Guernsey the older Norman pronunciation Berhaut is always used.
Torteval appears to have been 'the cradle of the race' in Guernsey. At the time of the Extente of 1331 six of the eight tenants of the Fief des Huit Bouvées in that parish were of the name. Four of the six bore the forename Jean. There have been Jean Brehauts in Torteval ever since. None are then mentioned in any other parish, but by the end of the following century the Brehauts had become established in several of the country parishes, even as far as the Càtel.
Variants
- Brehaut
- Brehault
Family records
Church records
- Brehaut baptisms in Jersey
- Brehaut marriages in Jersey (groom)
- Brehaut marriages in Jersey (bride)
- Brehaut burials in Jersey
Guernsey family trees
These trees have been retained from the old Donkipedia website for the benefit of users, but they are not subject to review in the same way as our Jersey trees
