Origins of surname
This is a name which is common throughout France, including Normandy. There are two possible derivations: the one which is usually cited is from cogner, a brawler who uses his fists. An alternative is a woodsman using a cognee = axe.
Early records
The name, in various spellings, has been known in Jersey since the end of the 13th century, but died out in the mid-19th century. There are baptisms in the St Helier register up to 1841, but no birth records from the start of central registration in 1842, nor any baptisms in St Helier after that date. At least three different families can be found in earlier records in St John, St Saviour and St Martin, and it is not known whether they had a common ancestor. Either there is a significant number of records missing from Jersey church records or there have been a number of different immigrants from France at various times.
Jean Coignard and Elizabeth Neel, who married in St Saviour in 1778, had a turbulent relationship. He was brought before the Royal Court in 1799, for violence and maltreatment of his wife, and abandoning her. By this time the couple had 11 children.
Variants
- Coignard 1668, 1607
- Cosnard 1749
- Coignert 1607
- Coingnart 1528
- Coignart 1461-78
- Conyart c1540
- Congnard 1351
- Cogart
- Cognart
- Cognard
- Coynard 1309, 1299
Family records
Family trees
Church records
- Coignard baptisms in Jersey
- Coignard marriages in Jersey (groom)
- Coignard marriages in Jersey (bride)
- Coignard burials in Jersey
Family wills
This will created by a member of the Coignard family is now held by Jersey Archive. By visiting the archive site and using the names, date and reference number 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 1948, and how to search for your family's wills there, visit our Jersey wills page
- Françoise Coignard, widow of Herculuce Le Ray 20 June 1746 - D/Y/A/8
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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