bray and scarff: I'm thinking that because he was a noble not many others would have had that surname. Am i descended from him? Of course, excluding the original organisms that all humans evolved from, am I related, even slightly?|||There's a pretty good chance you are descended from nobility. But not necessarily from the Bray guy you're referring to. Don't forget that your surname came from only one of your parents; your other parent (probably) had a different surname. And as you go backwards, you have: 4 grandparents 8 great-grandparents 16 great-great grandparents 32 great-great-great grandparents It keeps doubling every generation, giving you more and more surnames in your family tree. By the time you get back to medieval times (let's say 1400 or so), you're back to your 15-greats grandparents... and you theoretically have 131,072 of those!! Maybe the Sir Bray you've heard of is one of them; or maybe not. But with that many ancestors, there's a darn good chance that at least some of them were nobles, or perhaps even royalty. Here's an interesting article about a theory that everyone living today descends from Charlemagne: http://itotd.com/articles/226/most-recen鈥?/a>|||Maybe but not necessarily When surnames were taken or assigned in Europe during the last millennium it wasn't impossible for legitimate sons of the same man to wind up with a different surname and still each could have shared his surname with others with no known relationship. This is what Ancestry.Com has about the name Bray: bray Name Meaning and History English: habitational name from places in Berkshire and Devon. The former is probably named with Old French bray 鈥榤arsh鈥? the latter from the Cornish element bre 鈥榟ill鈥? Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4|||Trying to trace you ancestry by your surname alone is never a good idea, it interesting to know the origins of surnames but most times when people do the research they are quite disappointed by what they find compared to the history of their surname. You have to keep in mind that there are a lot of variables when it comes to people; you can't assign them a surname and expect that history to be true for time eternal. That being said, I鈥檒l show you what the sources say for your surname and what I found out about the possibility of your being descended from nobility. Bray Name Meaning and History English: habitational name from places in Berkshire and Devon. The former is probably named with Old French bray 鈥榤arsh鈥? the latter from the Cornish element bre 鈥榟ill鈥? Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4 http://www.ancestry.com/facts/Bray-famil鈥?/a> Surname: Bray This ancient and distinguished surname, recorded in the spellings of Bray, Braye, Brea, and Bree, and having no less than twenty-one Coats of Arms, and several notable entries in the "National Biography", has four distinct possible sources, each with its own history and derivation. Firstly, the name may be of Anglo-Saxon origin, and a locational name from the villages thus called in East Berkshire or Devonshire. Recorded as "Brai" in the Domesday Book of 1086, the villages were named from the Olde English pre 7th Century "breg", or the Welsh, Cornish "bre", meaning hill. Ralph de Bray was noted in the 1225 Curia Regis Rolls of Devonshire, Parnella Brea in the register of St Martins in the Field, Westminster, on February 10th 1565, and Underhill Bree in the register of St Botolphs without Aldgate, London, on March 13th 1669. Secondly the name may have originated as a nickname for one of great and noble bearing, from the Cornish "bregh", meaning fine or brave. Examples from this source include: Roger le Bray (Northamptonshire, 1202), and William le Brey (Somerset, circa 1314). The third possibility is of Scottish origin, and locational from one or other of the places called Brae. Godfredus de Bra was juror on an inquisition in Aberdeen in the year 1400. Finally, it may be of Irish origin, and an Anglicized form of the Old Gaelic "O'Breaghdha" indicating a native of Bregia, an ancient territory in Co. Meath. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Alnod de Braio, which was dated 1086, in the Domesday Book of Devonshire, during the reign of King William 1, known as "William the Conqueror", 1066 - 1087. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling. 漏 Copyright: Name Orgin Research www.surnamedb.com 1980 - 2010 Read more: http://www.surnamedb.com/surname.aspx?na鈥?/a> THE NORMAN BRAYS The Roll of Battle Abbey, (which is an ancient list, said to be compiled at the time, of those who invaded England from Normandy in 1066), states that men from the region of Bray marched with William the Conqueror, there was no Sir de Bray in the army at that time. However, there would have been some minor gentry and all those who took part in the campaign would have been well rewarded by William. Bray is a small village surrounded by farms near Evreux about half way between Paris and Le Havre in Normandy. However, there are some other places in France with Bray in their names near the channel coast so it is not certain which one is meant by the Roll. For example Bray-Sur-Somme has a First World War cemetery and is mentioned in military histories. A search in Google Maps will indicate the location of Bray and the other places. A dictionary of British names gives the first references to Bray as an Alnod de Braio in 1084 in Devon, a Richard de Brai in 1135 in Eynsham in Oxfordshire, then a Ralph de Bray 1225 in Devon followed by a Daniel de Bray in 1297. A web site, www.tudorplace.com.ar gives the earliest Bray in the noble line of decent as a William de Bray born in 1178, his son Ralph de Bray born 1204, (possibly the one in the Dictionary?), followed by his son, another William born 1230. This web site does not indicate a source for the information or a location for this family so it may be doubtful. The most famous of the early Brays in this noble line of decent was Sir Reginald Bray, Knight of the Garter who died 5 August 1503 and is buried in the Bray Chapel in Windsor Castle. He was the second son of Sir Richard Bray, one of the Privy Council to Henry VI. Reginald was serving with Lord Stanley in Henry Tudor鈥檚 army during the War of the Roses against King Richard III. During the battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, in the midst of the fighting, Richard was killed and Reginald Bray retrieved Richard鈥檚 Crown from under a hawthorn bush. He gave it to Lord Stanley who then placed it on Henry鈥檚 head declaring him King Henry VII thus becoming the first of the Tudor Kings. During the coronation of Henry, Reginald Bray was made a Knight of the Bath and later became very well rewarded for his service to the King over the years, receiving many high honors. He was regarded as a man of very high abilities; he served in a number of positions and is credited with the design of the St Georges Chapel in Windsor Castle where he is buried. A knight on the losing side at the Battle of Bosworth Field was a John de la Zouche, Lord of the Manor of Eitone (Eaton). His lands were confiscated and in 1490, the Manor of Eaton was granted to Sir Reginald Bray, the district then becoming known as Eaton Bray. As Reginald died without children, his estate passed to his nephew Sir Edmund Bray who in 1530 became the first Baron Bray(e). The male line has died out and three times the title has passed on to a daughter, because of this, the family name first changed to Verney and then to Verney-Cave through marriages. The family home also became Stanford Hall in Lutterworth, Leicestershire in the late 1700s, again through marriage, (see their website http://www.stanfordhall.co.uk/ for details about the house). The manor house of Eaton Bray, (Eitone as it was then), was commenced in 1221 and was demolished around 1794 and only traces of it remain today. The current holder of the title is Lady Penelope, the 8th Baroness Braye who passed the Hall over to her nephew in 2003. Read more at the following website, space constraints keeps me from posting the entire piece. http://users.cyberone.com.au/nevmoya/bra鈥?/a> Since the male line died out and three times the title has passed on to a daughter, your chance of being descended from that particular nobility is not very good.