OK, it really is official.  I have French blood.  Whoop whoop! 

I have just found out from my mum that there were family members on her father’s side that were from Jersey in the Channel Islands, and they had French surnames – FRENCH surnames!   They are buried in the Symonds Street Cemetery, by Grafton Bridge in Auckland City.  I have crossed over that bridge many times during my years working in the city, but never realised I had French relatives a stone’s throw away.

Deux jours plus tard…..

And here I am two days later, slightly deflated.

I do remember finding out, when I was quite young, that I had some French ancestry.  I knew no more about it, but the idea of it has always fascinated me.  After travelling to France in May and becoming completely smitten, I had hoped to be able to trace my lineage back to some tiny, sweet French village. Surely that would explain my attachment to places such as magical Perogues. 

Then, after learning from my mother about my French-surnamed relatives, I contacted her brother in Wellington.  My uncle has done a lot of research on our family’s history. I also did some investigating online myself. Do I have French blood?  Indeed, I can say oui to that.  It’s just not as close as I would have hoped.

What I now know is that there certainly are French surnames in my lineage on both sides of my maternal line.  Oh là là!

Anquetil, Quesnel, Hamon and Touzel were surnames of my relatives from Jersey in the Channel Islands, on my maternal grandfather’s side.  Jersey is not France, but it’s pretty darn close.  The connection is there. Hooray!

Savage and Simmons (which are anglicised versions of Sauvage and Simons/Simonds) are French Huguenot surnames.  These were relatives on my maternal grandmother’s side.

So, while the actual France-dwelling bearers of these names are a fair way back in my ancestral line, I’m still excited to know that they are certainly there.

In 1857, two of my Jersey ancestors arrived in Auckland by ship with their nine children.  Their granddaughter and her husband would venture further still to live in Queens Charlotte Sound, in the South Island.  While on a holiday in that area some years ago, my mother followed a hand-drawn map of the Sounds area, sketched on a wee bit of paper by her grandmother, who was one of the children of that family.  The roughly sketched map showed the area where the family had lived in Queens Charlotte Sound.  Walking along the bush tracks, following her grandmother’s map, my mother came across a tourist signage board giving information of the area, and there amongst that information was a photo of her grandmother’s family.  Fancy that! The wee sketched map had proved most reliable.

So there it is.  My French Connection. And examples of past adventurers with, alas, many stories left untold.   

Thomas and Ellen Bright, Queen Charlotte Sound, New Zealand