My earliest known Ray ancestor in the United States is William Ray (wife Anne), born approx. 1660 in England, died 7 Jan 1737, Prince George's County, Maryland, USA. He had an older brother John, born approx. 1658, in England. These two brothers immigrated to America, William to Prince George's County, MD, and John to Anne Arundel County, MD. According to book My Brother, My son: Ray-Ball and related names, history and genealogy by Nancy J. Wach, 1991, Greeley, CO, William and Anne married in England abt. 1676, and had ten children born there before coming to America. Father of William and John believed to be John of Lancashire, England. I am looking for records of immigration for these Rays, records of birth, marriage, birth of William and Anne's children in England, and verification of the mother and father of William and John, and generations going back from their parents. I would like to know areas where they lived. I know many Rays, reays, other spellings, live in northern England, and in Scotland.
My ultimate goal is to trace my line of Rays back as far as I can. If others in England have traced their Rays and could help me with this I would be so grateful. I have done my autosomal DNA through Ancestry.com and uploaded to gedmatch.com, so will be looking for Ray matches. My male first cousin Ray has done his autosomal and y-dna tests on FTDNA, so we are looking for matches there as well.
Next year I plan to come to England and hope to have found some of you living Rays that I am related to. If you have not done your DNA please consider doing so to try to match our Ray family. This is an exciting time when we can use both written records and DNA matches to find our roots.
