Etienne “Bray”, our immigrant ancestor to Canada from
France, first appears in the Canadian record in 1717. Between 1717 and
1774 Etienne’s name is recorded in the following places:
I see the Bret development as positive news on two
fronts. First, Bret is not a common name
outside the Rhone-Alps region. That's good because less common names are more likely to trace back to a single common
ancestor. Secondly, the name Bret is
highly specific to the regions near Montagne in France. This regional specificity again is typical of
a single common ancestor.
·
in a register of the sick as a navy recruit at
the Quebec Hotel de Dieu (hospital)
·
as godparent at two baptisms
·
in his own marriage record
·
in a census
·
in the baptisms and marriages of his numerous
children
·
as a witness at other’s wedding
·
in his own and his wife’s death records
In Canada Etienne’s surname is spelled variously as Bre,
Bray, Braye, and Bree, most frequently as Bre and Bray. Spelling variations
such as this are commonplace in this time period. Throughout the years, the Canadian spelling of
Etienne’s male-line descendants has been standardized to Bray.
The surname Bray, also common in England, is found early in
France frequently on the Normandy / Picardy border where there is a small geological region
called pays de Bray. Pays de Bray translates
as Brayland or Bray country. Pays de Bray
features several towns with Bray in the title, such as Neufchâtel-en-Bray, and Gournay-en-Bray. Etymologically, Bray comes from the Gaulish word braco, which in Old French became Bray. Bray means marsh, swamp
or mud; Pays de Bray is named for its muddy clay soil. We can well imagine that when surnames were
being established, many people in the Pays de Bray region took their town’s
name for their surname resulting in the many Brays in this area. By 1700, however, the Bray name in France is
even more common in Saone-et-Loire, a department in central France.
Our immigrant ancestor, however, is not from Pays de Bray or
Saone-et-Loire. In his Canadian parish marriage record from St-François-de-Sales,
on Montreal’s Île-Jésus, 21 February
1724, Etienne gave his home parish as St. Etienne en Dauphine, located in the
hamlet of Montagne, today in the department of Isere, in the Rhone-Alps region
of France.
In Etienne’s 4 February 1694 baptismal record in France, his
father is listed as Etienne Bret – a spelling that never appears in Canada - and
his mother as Hélène Argoud. (French
women maintain their natal names throughout life in vital records.) Baptismal records for two sisters and a
brother of Etienne – children of Etienne Bret and Hélène Argoud - have recently
been brought to the attention of the French-Canadian community by Lise Dandonneau,
as noted at Fichier Origine. In Etienne’s sister Élisabeth’s 31 January 1684
baptismal record, her godmother is listed as “Élisabeth Conil, veuve de [widow
of] Jean Bret”. Jean Bret was likely a
relative, possibly an uncle or grandfather to the new baby. This is another clue that our family name
Bray was spelled Bret in Isere.
As the map of Bret surnames in 1700 from GeneaNet shows, the surname Bret is tightly
localized to the Rhone-Alps region, with 36.7% of all French Brets in 1700
coming from Rhone-Alps.
GeneaNet, citing William Arthur’s 1857 An etymological dictionary of family and Christian names indicates
that Bret is probably contracted from Breton, meaning a Briton, and also notes that
brette in French is a long sword.
As more parish records from the
Isere department of France are beginning to be available online, I am
optimistic, that we will soon have genealogical proof extending our Bray family
line back one or two more generations in France.
Sources
“Etienne’s name is recorded “, “spelled variously” – PRDH
“Pays de Bray features several towns”, “Bray means marsh” –
Wikipedia, Pays-de-Bray
“more likely to trace back to a single common ancestor” – see
King and Jobling for more detail.
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