Dongray Family Tree

Using the Internet Geneology Service it was possible to gain much of the Dongray family tree between 1640 and 1884. BUT... there is debate and uncertainty about who is the father of Peter Dangray. Currently, I'm of the belief that Peter was born Pierre Dancre, as if you pronounce Dancre in a heavy French accent it sounds much like Dangre. Remember the French pronounce words like Dans like an English person would pronouce Don nasally. And the gutteral cr sounds (to an English ear) very much like a gutteral gr, as English does not use gutteral sounds.

Then I have found various ancestors whose children sometimes were registered Dancre, while others were registered Dangre, which joins these two names, however they were pronouced. Especially as 17th century French and English probably did not sound much like Parissienne French nor Queen's English sound today. I also do not believe the literacy level of anyone was good enough to make records have consistant spellings of names.
FYI I have found other ancestors have been registered with any of D'Angre, Dangree, Dungre, Dancre, Doncar, Donkar, Daugre, Dungrey, Dangrey, Dongree, Dongreay, Dongrey, Dougray, but now we are Dongray.
Coming from North France, a town called Angre is probably the source of the name, as De means of, so someone from there would be (for example) John Of Angre, which in French is Jean D'Angre.

The modern day information was mainly provided by:

• Stanley Dongray, my father
• Vera Jarvis, who married into the Dongray family, my 4th cousins wife, who lives in Ferring, W.Sussex,
• Margaret Jennings, my 4th cousin, whose mother is Gwendolen Dongray, who now live in New Zealand,
• Robert Dongray, also my 4th cousin, living in Buckinghamshire, England,
• Florence Dongray, wife of my 4th cousin once removed, living in Worthing, England,
• Stanley Allen, another 4th cousin once removed, living in Reading, England, who has done some serious research on the name.
• David Kinna, who married yet another 4th cousin.

There are many holes, and potential people who had children not recorded, whose decendents may be alive today with the name Dongray, and maybe would like to contact me, Bryan Dongray, either by email (btd@dongrays.com), phone (USA: +1-510-315-8645 / UK 01603-516225), or by letter:

4942 Hyde Park Dr Fremont, CA 94538 U.S.A.

or

PO Box 894 Newark, CA 94560-0894 U.S.A.

 

Key	blue for boys	pink for girls	Dates are YYYY-MM-DD format	Dates with -abt are as recorded
	Calculated guesses		Dates with * are christenings	Dates with -ish are my guesses

Dongray family tree:	Chronological | Alphabetical | Indented list		Page updated 2010-03-19
All relations:	Chronological | Alphabetical | PkZip of all pages		See any errors? Email webmaster

For details on other surnames I have found good resources to be http://www.surnameweb.org/ http://www.ancestor-search.info/