Hi BRAY Buddies! I located the BRAY reference I talked of before. BRAY NOSTALGIA Vol. 2 No 1 June 1986 Ed: Cheryl L. CLARK This was originally written by Eli BRAY (ca 1876-1880) in Missouri "When Aunt Mahala <Mahala BRAY BROWN widow of Ephraim BROWN> was at my house the last time before she died, she gave me the history of the BRAY as far back as she knew it, and I wrote the names in rotation as she gave them to me. She also game me the surnames of who they married. I will now give you a short outline of our descent from the time our ancestors came to this country. Henry BRAY, the father of our house of BRAYs, was born in England 1683. He with his younger brother Edward, came to the country in the year 1701 the their Uncle Thomas on Church business <COMMENT: this Thomas worked for the Archbishop of Canterbury and established the Maryland Library system so Mahala is accurately recalling this most distant generation even if she had no clue about his library building efforts. I knew about Thomas BRAY before I ever located this letter of Mahala's>. Henry was married in Maryland. The surname of his wife is not know for certain <sic>, but it is supposed to be JONES. From Maryland he went to what is now known as South Carolina and thence to Chatham Co. NC. when he died at the ripe age of 113 years. Henry begot two sons, the elder being in our line of descent and Henry by name. This Henry married Miss Sarah YOKLEY and lived and died in Chatham County at the age of 70 years. He was a farmer and merchant and to him and Sarah, his wife, were born eleven children, nine sons and two daughters. The third child's name was William and is next in line of our descent." There follows a long discourse on the family of William BRAY & Margaret BROOKS. This is Edward BRAY m. Sarah MAYNARD & Henry BRAY m. Marie WILSON being clearly listed as brothers. Can anyone prove Mahala & Eli BRAY wrong? This account fits the facts I have been able to locate. james wall

I thank you for sharing your family heritage story . however It is not likely that one would live to be especially in those days 113 .I just don't believe it happened .I think that you are all missing a generation here and confusing a Henry Sr with a Henry Jr as one Henry . There is also no evidence that Thomas Bray had any brothers .in order for thomas to have been the uncle of Henry Bray ,he would have had to had a brother none so far have been found . without proof thats what they remain stories . Stories sometimes over time can take on a life of their own, however one must continue to search and not compacently accept what has been handed down as truth .Its like when you were a kid and played telephone each whispering to another a sentence and by the time it got to the end of the row of kids the sentence retained little of its original content It is also possibly true that Henry is the nephew,or some relation of Thomas, and that not all facts have been found re family members .perhaps there was a brother who has not come to light there are other slightly different stories out there re this relationship it certainly warrents checking out . patricia perkins