Messervy Stories

 What Can a Photo Tell You? #52ancestors Week 3 and I can't believe I am still managing to make the weekly deadline. The theme for this week is "Favourite Photo".  I don't have a large collection of Messervy photos and to be truthful, some of my favourite ancestral photos are from other lines of my personal heritage.  Having said that, I have always been drawn to this photo* of Herbert Louis Messervy and his brother Albert Frederick.  Albert Frederick Messervey(L) & Herbert Louis Messervey (R) Albert is on the left and Herbert Louis on the right, sitting on a very rickety looking handmade bench.  I do not know the location as it seems to be rural and the brothers were urban residents for the most part.  I think that they both look a bit dapper and Louis betrays his hairdresser occupation with his very well-groomed hair - I'm afraid that Albert has less hair to style!  Albert is looking away from the camera, and may suggest he is not happy to have his picture

Jure-Justiciers and more in the Island of Jersey   Week 2 of   #52ancestors   and the theme for the blog post is "Favourite Find", which can be interpreted in many ways.     It can be finding a mystery ancestor, coming across a great resource, discovering interesting moments of an ancestor's life.     So many choices, but I have to pick one.   Messervy is one of the oldest recorded surnames in Jersey.  Jersey has a long history, being part of the Duchy of Normandy from 933 to 1066, then in 1066 part of the Anglo-Norman world.  Jersey was ruled by Normandy until 1204, when it established its unique relationship with the United Kingdom as the Bailiwick of Jersey, a British crown dependency. [1]   Much of the structure of its governance emerged from Norman traditions, but today it is a mix of modern and traditional.  Why have I provided this little bit of history?  It is essential to introduce one favourite find : the contributions that many Messervys made to the governance

  The Messervy Settlement in New Hampshire I made a commitment to follow the  #52ancestors  program of  Amy Johnson Crow  for 2022 and crossing fingers, this will result in a weekly blog post about a Messervy ancestor.  I am hoping that ancestor by ancestor, I can update research and tell a story simultaneously.  We shall see!  The #52ancestors has a weekly theme and this one is  foundations.   I have previously blogged about the foundation Messervy for Newfoundland and for New Zealand.  Having done some work on the US lines this past week, I decided to post about Clément Messervy, who very early on emigrated to New Hampshire, specific date unknown but was paying taxes by 1673.   Of course, at that time, New Hampshire was one of the 13 British colonies that were part of the American revolution many years later, and became the United States. Gorey in Jersey today, with Mont Orgueil Castle on the right.  The church on the left was only built in 1832. The castle's existence is noted a