Family History Trip to Jersey

We had a Saturday and Sunday this week with all of our other work caught up -- so we talked to the President and flew off to the island of Jersey. Sister Cannon's great-great-grandfather and grandmother were both from Jersey (but didn't meet until the both converted and were off to Utah).

We met the Key family who live there (Sister Key is the DeLaMare we met at the temple) and they showed us around (first pic). This BlogSpot has very poor formatting that I can figure out, so I'm going to explain the pictures in order below. The harbor of the island is protected by two massive piers (2nd and 3rd pics) built by Philip DeLaMare and Francois DeLaMare (father) called the Albert and Victoria. It's difficult to see perspective, but the pier is about 60 feet high and perhaps 100 feet wide. It needs to be that high since Jersey has one of the highest tide surges in the world. From low to high can be as much as 40'. This is almost low tide -- at high tide, the ocean comes up to Sister Cannon's feet.

Pic 4 is the Grouville Church in the parish where the DeLaMares lived. You can't see it, but the church is surrounded by tombstones. The old ones are unfortunately weathered to far to read. Pc 5 is the Gorey Castle from the 15th century. The last pic is church on Sunday with the Jersey missionaries.

We're glad we went. Jersey is NOT like England. Names of towns, houses, and streets are mostly French. The country is quite rugged and volcanic. Tourism is big. While England has mostly brick houses, Jersey is all made from the local granite -- even if covered by plaster. They have their own money and their own government. While they are part of the United Kingdom, they jokingly refer to the English Invasion. It is more Norman than English. During WWII, Jersey was occupied by the Germans and there are bunkers and gun emplacements all along the beaches. On one of the bluffs we could look over 14 miles into France while England was 200 miles away.