GARDINER members around the world

GARDINER Family History

This interesting surname is of early medieval French origins. It is occupational and is derived from the word "gardin", meaning 'Little clearing', and itself a diminutive of the Germanic word gard, an enclosure cleared for agriculture. Probably introduced into England after the Norman Invasion of 1066, the function of the gardinier or jardiniere of medieval times was not a gardener as we would think of the term today, but was specific to the growing of medicinal herbs, fruit and vegetables, what in modern parlance, would be more of a market gardener. Furthermore the gardiner was in early times associated with the monasteries where it was an important secular post...