IN LIBERTATE VERITAS
Important Note: This website is written in English to aid international understanding, and due to the reason that English is the first, and in some cases only, language spoken by members of the Boissay family. There are no plans to offer original translations of the website's content currently.
Welcome to the Boissay homepage. This website contains information about the Boissay family and its history in France, following the Norman Conquest in England, and briefly in Southern Africa. Also contained within this website are ways for members of the Boissay family to access notices and the Boissay e-mail service.
The inception of the Boissay house is considered to be in 1047, with the birth of Jean de Boissay (son of Guillaume de Boissay) who was the first member of the family to live in Norman England. However, other members of the Boissay house presumably continued to live in France, as a history of them remains there. It is not known how many members of the Boissay house remain who are not descended from this 'first' line. We will celebrate an 1000-year anniversary of the House of Boissay in 2047, but there are still many years to come before then.
Over the following 1000 years in England, the Boissay family has produced many very successful academics (with several different names other than the original Boissay) such as William de Bosco / de Boys, a chancellor of the University of Oxford, and numerous prominent surgeons and physicians (including the inventor of the hypodermic syringe, Alexander Wood). Some members of the Boissay family even went to live in South Africa and Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia); to my knowledge very few remain, having mostly migrated back to Europe.
The Boissay family organisation offers many services that would be useful for family members, including a Boissay-branded email service and a method for transmitting notices to other family members. We may offer more services in the future so that all of the family can benefit. It is defined that you are a member of the family if you can prove that you are of Boissay descent, without regard to your legal name.
While the Boissay family was originally a noble-family of France, it was officially abolished in the French revolution with the abolition of the French nobility. Members of the Boissay family were the Seigneurs de Cailly, presumably until the abolition of the nobility in 1790. As such, it has no defined seat or head as is standard for most families of this type.