Genealogy / Last name History or help please: BREJ surname [20]

No - please, I don't mean any disrespect - I was merely offering a theory as to why Brej seems, in my limited research, to be an uncommon Polish name. It doesn't make us/them any less Polish...just perhaps further back we come from somewhere else.

Also, this forum will not yet let me post links or send personal emails. In some of my google searching (the phrase "Brej Surname"), I have come across a similar map (myheritage dot com), which states that 60% of People with the surname of Brej live in The United States, while 20% live in France, and 20% are in the Czech Republic - and there's no mention of Poland. There's no arguing that there are many Brejs in Poland - I just haven't been able to uncover much info on them, save for a little bit on my direct ancestors that emmigrated here.

Please, if anyone has further information I am very eager to learn more about my heritage. And again I mean no disrespect to anyone.

All the best,
Jason Bray
Portland, OR US

Genealogy / Last name History or help please: BREJ surname [20]

Hello Don,

I am a Bray (originally Brej). The furthest I have gotten on the ancestry website while researching my family tree is my great grandfather Frank John Bray (again originally Brej), born 1891 in Dobrynia. He must have emmigrated to the states in the early 19teens - as he married Sophia Helen Retzior from Whitehall, Michigan and had eleven children - one of which was my grandfather (paternal), Joseph F Bray born 1924 in Hart, Michigan, where Frank John stayed until his passing in 1974.

I have not come across much at all in my research of our fine surname in any Polish records. My theory is that our ancestors were not actually Polish in origin, but perhaps Czech - as Dobrynia lies so close to the border.

I hope this is of some help and I would love to know more of what you have found.

Your potential relative,
Jason Bray
Portland, OR