Ray Family History
- Ray Name Meaning
- English (of Norman origin): nickname denoting someone who behaved in a regal fashion or who had earned the title in some contest of skill or by presiding over festivities, from Old French rey, roy ‘king’. Occasionally this was used as a personal name. English: nickname for a timid person, from Middle English ray ‘female roe deer’ or northern Middle English ray ‘roebuck’. English: variant of Rye (1 and 2). English: habitational name, a variant spelling of Wray. Scottish: reduced and altered form of McRae. French: from a noun derivative of Old French raier ‘to gush, stream, or pour’, hence a topographic name for someone who lived near a spring or rushing stream, or a habitational name from a place called Ray. Indian: variant of Rai.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press
- 3,766,786 Historical Documents with Ray on Ancestry
- 1,326,509 Birth, Marriage, and Deaths
- 695,931 Census and Voter Lists
- 191,408 Military Records
- 57,579 Immigration Records
- 1,495,359 Member Trees
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Number of Ray families
 693 - 1,383  232 - 692 |
 1 - 231  |
from the 1891 England and Wales Census Data
Number of Ray families
|
175 - 347 59 - 174 |
1 - 58 |
from the 1851 Canada Census Data
Ray census records
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Census records can tell you little-known facts about your ancestors such as birthplace, occupation and value of personal estate.
from the New York Passengers List
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The information for this chart came from the U.S. Immigration Collection at Ancestry. You can find out where the majority of the Ray families were living before they immigrated to the U.S and learn where to focus your search for foreign records.
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from the Canadian Passenger Lists
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You can find out when most of the Ray families immigrated to Canada. You can focus your search to immigration records dating from that era.
Immigration records can tell you an ancestor's name, ship name, port of departure, port of arrival and destination.
from 1881 CA Census Data
Ray census records
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