Hello Anne!
This is exciting to find another family member with the same roots!!
i.e. Alderney C.Island....'The Jewel of the English Channel'
Sorry for delay in reply, I have only just picked up your reply.
I found your pieces of family history re. Leonie's descendants extremely interesting. I was particularly intrigued to learn that Leonie's Father-in-law came from Somerset. My parents live in Somerset, so I know it is quite a common local name. There are, I believe, still Rowes on Alderney to this day.
As for me, I live near Reading, in the West Berkshire village of Burghfield. It is very pleasant here. We moved here 14 years ago from Plymouth. I have 3 daughters and I served in the W.R.N.S. for nearly 7 years from the age of 18.
There is so much information to exchange with a subject like this, that obviously it cannot all be done at once!! It is knowing where to start!!
But, briefly, my Dad and I did a lot of research in the early 70s when we holidayed quite often on Alderney, and were able to visit the parish church of St Anne, to look at the records and study the headstones. This is where we found most of the information about Jean Louis' sisters, including Leonie. As well as Leonie, we found reference to his other sisters, namely Francoise Marie Bernadine; Amande Marie Julie; and Louise Virginie Felicite. (Yes! What beautiful names!) We could not find reference to any brothers. We found out that the family had moved to Alderney from Bouzeval France, but don't know the reason. We were unable to confirm whether or not the family may have been larger and whether there were more brothers or sisters left in France.
Interestingly it seems a 'quirk' of nature that the 'Quinain' name was destined to dwindle, as the appearance of boys was very rare, or through some unlucky twist of fate, were destined not to produce sons and heirs!! A good example is my grandfather Frederick William, who very sadly died right at the end of the 1918 war of the puemonia epidemic, which killed millions, who had at least managed to survive the atrocities of the 1st World War. He is buried in the Military Cemetery at Rouen. We took my father (Louis), his only offspring, to visit his father's war grave for the first time only recently, in October 1999. It was a very emotional journey, as Dad was only 3 yrs old when his Dad died. He has only a very hazy recollection of him.
I can supply you, at some point, with full details of nearly all of my Great Grandfather Jean Louis'(i.e. Leonie's brother)family line.
You may be interested to note that I have joined 'Ancestry.com' with a view to compiling an online family tree for Quinain. I have not started yet, but think it sounds an interesting venture. I expect you know about this site if you have been looking at family history.
Anyway I really have to go now, but will be in touch again soon to decide on a 'plan of action' for tackling the family tree!!
My email is:
maggiequinain@hotmail.com.
Please do feel free to contact me there.
Great to meet you.
Bye for now
Margaret.