My Grinyer Family

Owned by Liz Hardie
Last updated: Dec 30, 2020

My Grinyer Family

Grinyer is an occupation name, derived from the Old French word "grenier" - for a worker at a mill or granary. Historically the names is found only in Sussex - which could indicate a single progenitor. There are several different spelling found in records Greenyer, Grenier, Grynyer and Greenyear. The name first first appears in records in 1549 which coincides with the beginning of the Walloon and Hugenount migrations that followed the banning of heretics in France from 1535. There is the following reference - but we have no proven links to this family)

The surname of this Huguenot family was Grenier, a corruption of Garniero; pointing to Italian ancestry. The senior branch was represented as late as 1829 by the late César de Garnier, Marquis de Juliers. The junior branch were the Greniers of Languedoc, eminent in the Huguenot civil wars; a member of the family was created Comte de Fonblanque by Henri IV., Fonblanque being a fief in the Forêt de la Gresine, near Bruniquet. (Protestant Exiles from France Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 18 - Section XIII)

Current research identifies our line of the Grinyer family first appearing in records in Sussex in mid 1500. The earliest confirmed member of our Grinyer family is Phillippe Grynier  - who eldest son is baptised in Stanmer in 1577, however limited information is available about the family until his 6 x great grand-daughter Frances Grinyer married Josiah Bashford in 1784. It is their son - George William Bashford - who emigrates to Australia around 1865

The Grinyer ancestry goes back 15 generations and biographies exist for some members as indicated by links below