Marjorie's mailing address can be found on the GFA Contacts page.

How can I obtain a Grinnell family crest?
For almost 100 years, the common belief was that the American Grinnell family descended from a minor French noble family, the Grenelles, of Paris and Burgundy. Their crest was adopted by many and is described in French armorial publications. Research performed in the late 1980s and early 1990s has disproved this link, with strong evidence of the American Grinnells coming from Essex County, England. The progenitors of the American Grinnell family, Matthew and Rose (French) Greenell, were married in Lexden, Essex County, England in 1615. Several of their children were baptised in either Lexden or adjoining Colchester. They were admitted as residents of Portsmouth/Newport, Rhode Island in 1638. What all this means is that the American Grinnell family has no proven ties to the French Grenelle family or its crest.

We are still trying to find more information of this family. We have some theories that Matthew's family emigrated, perhaps from France, to Essex County, England, in the 1550s, as we have similar-named individuals (Granel) living in the area. A 1550 date would coincide with a mass emigration of French Protestants to Holland and England, escaping the French Inquisition (only slightly less horrible than the one that took place in Spain from the 1490s to the early 1600s). The possibility always exists that we may actually tie to the French Grenelle family, but several generations earlier than previously believed. The research continues...

It is important to make it clear that no one in the American Grinnell family is truly entitled to use the Grenelle family crest. Family crests are handed down from father to son, so even if Matthew did descend from the French Grenelle family, and there is no verifiable evidence that he did, he was born some 100-150 years before the only known Grenelle family crest (see below) was registered with the French officialdom (it was registered somewhere in the 1700s).

This information was not known at the time of the writing of the original Grinnell genealogy in the 1930s, and the error continued through the 1984 Grinnell genealogy. The 1997 edition finally corrected the error, detailing Matthew's British connection. An article can be found on the GFA website that talks about the area in England where Matthew married and raised his family.