ALBRAY
A One-Name Study
Introduction
I began researching my wife’s family history in the early 2000’s, shortly after a family holiday in the Lake District of northwest England. While there, we visited Hartlepool in Northeast England, and my wife’s uncle, Harry Albray, said he’d like to go to the National Museum of the Royal Navy where the ship HMS Trincomalee is preserved. Soon afterwards, while searching on the 1881 British Census, I discovered that Harry’s grandfather, Henry Albray, was Leading Seaman on that very ship! Harry knew that there were links to the Royal Navy in the family, but he didn’t know this little gem! Not surprisingly, his brief visit to the ship late that afternoon became far more special to him, and he was eager to learn more about his ancestry. He also wanted to visit Hartlepool again so that he could have a more in-depth look at the ship. Very sadly, that never happened.
Harry Douglas Albray1930–2004On 27th February 2004, Harry passed away at the age of seventy-four. |
My research into the handful of Albray families in the UK led me to the Alberry families of Trotton and Rogate in West Sussex. Albray is just one of many variant spellings found in the wider family group over more than three centuries. If you look at the Surname Index page, you’ll see just how many variant spellings I’ve found so far, although not all of them are relevant to this small family group.
The earliest use of the Albray spelling in this particular family was on 28th October 1862 when fourteen year-old Henry Albray volunteered as a Boy 2nd Class with the Royal Navy, and his mother signed the form of agreement as Elizabeth Albray.
If you would like help in researching your Albray family tree, or if you have a correction, contribution, or suggestion that you’d like to make regarding this website, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
In September 2019, I became a member of the Guild Of One-Name Studies. A one-name study (ONS) aims to research the genealogy and family history of all people with a given surname (and its variants), is global in scope and covers all periods of time.
I would like to take this opportunity to pass on my deepest and sincerest thanks to Judy Lester of Kerrywood Research in London, who gave so much of her personal time in transcribing numerous items, to Tony and Linda Knight of Knightroots for all their lookups and encouragement, to Nivard Ovington for his invaluable help with military queries, to Alan Foxall for all his assistance with regards the Foxall family, and to Den Budden for his help and support back in the early days of my research. I am eternally grateful to each one of them.
Jonathan Nixey–18th June 2021
Credits
The Albray family crest is by houseofnames.com.