Misson

Misson family page

It is not clear which of various derivations of this name in France should be attached to the Jersey surname

Jules Pierre Ecobichon and Jane Cristina, nee Misson who were married in St Helier on 13 September 1894. Jules was 24 and although his bride's age was given as 21, she was born in February 1875 and was, therefore, only 19. Jules was the son of another Jules and Jane was the daughter of Frank, of St John. The couple were living at Glenside, Trinity, during the German Occupation

Record Search

Direct links to lists of baptisms, marriages and burials for the Misson family can be found under Family Records opposite. If you want to search for records for a spelling variant of Misson, or for any other family name, just click below on the first letter of the
family name you are interested in. This will open a new tab in your browser giving you a list of family names beginning with that letter,
for which there are baptism records in our database of half a million church and public registry records.

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and when the list of records is displayed you can easily refine the search, choosing a single parish, given name(s) and/or start and end dates.

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

From August 2020 we have started adding records from non-Anglican churches, and this process will continue as more records, held by Jersey Archive, are digitised and indexed. Our database now includes buttons enabling a search within registers of Roman Catholic, Methodist and other non-conformist churches. These records will automatically appear within the results of any search made from this page.

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Origins of surname

The name Misson is found in various parts of France and the derivation appears to vary from region to region. In Belgium and the north of France it started out as a personal name, derived from the Latin 'Domitius' via 'Domisse' and 'Domice'. In Aquitaine is indicates someone from the commune of Misson in the Landes department. In Auvergne it is synonymous with 'Moisson', a name which, unlike Misson, is found in Normandy, and signifies a person who is very small, light or frugal.

Variants

• Misson
• Minson

Early records

We remain slightly sceptical that these names are variants of each other, despite both being found in records for the same family in Jersey. We have found no reference at all to Minson in France, nor, although it appears to sound more English than French, any appearance in lists of English surnames.

Despite the name being present in Jersey either as Minson or Misson from as early as 1707, Charles Stevens' Comprehensive list of Jersey surnames gives no indication of its antiquity.

We believe that the Jacques, who is at the head of the tree below, and who married Marguerite Aubert at St Mary in 1704, was a Misson, and that the name was erroneously recorded as, or changed to, Minson at some point later. Jacques may have been a Huguenot refugee.

Family records

Family trees

• Descendants of Jacques Misson

Church records

Tips for using these links

Misson

• Misson baptisms in Jersey
• Misson marriages in Jersey (groom)
• Misson marriages in Jersey (bride)
• Misson burials in Jersey

Minson

• Minson baptisms in Jersey
• Minson marriages in Jersey (groom)
• Minson marriages in Jersey (bride)
• Minson burials in Jersey

Great War service

• Misson family members who served in World War 1

Family wills

These wills created by members of the Misson 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

• David Misson, 2 Kew Villas, St Helier - 6 July 1925, D/Y/A/85
• Philippe Misson, Trinity - 28 August 1937, D/Y/A/101

• Misson burial records 1820-1978

Family album

A 1920s Misson wedding. Eugene Le Feuvre Le Herissier married Ada Lilian Misson at Trinity Church on 20 July 1921. Back row: Mr Mollet, Mr Richardson, Eugene Le Herissier, John Le Herissier, Harry Ecobichon; seated: (Miss?) Misson, Mrs Marie Mollet, nee Misson, Ada Misson, Hilda Misson, Mrs Laura Richardson, nee Misson; On the floor: Ivy Misson and Philip Misson, future Viscount of Jersey. It is not clear why the bride's parents are not in the photograph. She was the daughter of Philip Francis Misson (1871-1937) and Marie Louise, nee Ecobichon (1874-1958). Philip Francis was a sea captain, so perhaps he was overseas at the time of his daughter's wedding. Perhaps that is Mrs Misson, not Miss Misson, on the left

Postcard leads to doubts over recipient's mother's age

Misleading records

This postcard, sent from Newfoundland to Lizzie Misson at the Customs Hotel in 1903 led us on a search for her family which revealed how misleading official records can be.

The question is whether Lizzie's mother was aged 14 or 22 when she married Lizzie's father.

Lizzie Sophia Misson, the recipient of the card, was born in 1886, and was, therefore, 17 when it arrived. It is impossible to read the signature under the message on the reverse of the card to know who sent it to her. She was the fourth of George Frederick and Elise Louise Misson's eight children, but the second eldest to survive until the 1901 census. That showed George as the innkeeper of the Customs Hotel, a 23-room establishment on the Esplanade – St Helier's seafront. He took over from James Williams who was shown as proprietor in 1899 advertising. George was born in St Brelade in 1849, a sixth-generation member of a family with its local origins in St Mary, the son of John Robert and Susanne, nee Le Cornu.

Child bride?

He and Elise Louise Le Boulanger were married in St Brelade in 1878. Louise was shown in their marriage record as born in 1857, but the 1871 census, which shows her as the daughter of Frederic and Victorine Le Boulanger, gives her age as only 7, which would indicate a birth year of 1864, making her 14 at the time of her marriage. The Le Boulangers were immigrants from Bricquebec, Normandy.

In the 1881 Census George was shown as a public house keeper, at the Traveller's Inn, Tabor, St Brelade, and his wife Elise was shown as 18 years old, thus born in about 1863. They had a two-month-old son George, who was born on 28 January

In the 1891 census George is shown as a publican, living with his family at Maison de Bas, St Lawrence. His wife's age is given as 27, confirming her year of birth as 1863-64. George is no longer listed in the houshold, and he is believed to have died in infancy, although no burial record has been found.

Elise had had a second son, John Philip, in December 1881, but he died in 1883, so he also does not show in the 1891 census. That shows Lizzie Sophia; Philip born in February 1889; and Albert born in March the following year. Francis Frederick, born in 1884, does not show in the census but is known to have survived to adulthood and become an engineer.

George and Elise had two further children, Edmund in 1891, who became a hairdresser's assistant by 1911; and Ernest, born in 1892. He became a cycle repairer and then motor mechanic and married Ethel Maud Carver in St Helier in 1921. He died in 1957.

Censuses consistent

Elise is consistently shown through all census returns as born in 1863-64, but the record of her burial in 1920 shows her born in 1857. It seems unlikely that she would have been shown as seven years old in the 1871 census if she was really 14, and the disparity between the census returns and church records of her marriage and burial suggest that her age was inflated when she married as a child bride and the 1857 birth year was somehow transferred from her marriage record to her burial.

There is no doubt about Lizzie Sophia's dates. She was born on 23 April 1886, was a milliner after leaving school, and married Winter Frederick le Sueur at St Andrew's Church in 1917. They had one son, Robert Winter Misson, in 1920. The family was living at Horizon View, Victoria Avenue, First Tower, during the Second World War.

• Misson family tree

Occupation curfew cards

Curfew pass issued to Philip Misson during the Occupation as an employee at the Gas Works ^[1]

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

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

Notes and references

1. ↑ These cards are held by Jersey Archive. Visit The Archive online catalogue for more information. A subscription may be needed to view some of the site's content