Gregg Name Study

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: USA, Ireland, Scotland
Surname/tag: Gregg, Gragg, MacGregor, Gregor

Contents 1 About the Project 2 How to Join 3 Research Pages 4 Membership 5 Related Surnames and Surname Variants 5.1 History 6 Sources

About the Project

The Gregg Name Study project serves as a collaborative platform to collect information on the Gragg name. The hope is that other researchers like you will join the study to help make it a valuable reference point for other genealogists who are researching or have an interest in the Gragg name.

As a One Name Study, this project is not limited to persons who are related biologically. Individual studies can be used to branch out the research into specific methods and areas of interest, such as geographically (Scotland Greggs), by time period (18th Century Greggs), or by topic (Gregg DNA, Gregg Occupations, Gregg Statistics). These studies may also include a number of family branches that have no immediate link with each other. Some researchers may even be motivated to go beyond the profile identification and research stage to compile fully sourced, single-family histories of some of the families they discover through this name study project.

Also see the related surnames and surname variants.

How to Join

To join the Gregg Name Study, first start out by browsing our current research pages to see if there is a specific study ongoing that fits your interests. If so, feel free to add your name to the Membership list below, post an introduction comment on the specific team page, and then dive right in!

If a research page does not yet exist for your particular area of interest, please contact the Name Study Coordinator: Vacant for assistance.

Once you are ready to go, you can also show your project affiliation with the ONS Member Sticker:

Research Pages

Here are some of the current research pages included in the study. I'll be working on them, and could use your help!

Membership

Related Surnames and Surname Variants

• Gregg

History

The "Surname" Gregg is the name of many early American pioneers. It is originally from the name "MacGregor". Some pioners in Early Colonial America, a few generations intio their arrival here adopted the "A" (as in Gragg) due to clerical mistakes made on official government documents such as "Censuses", "Land Deeds", "Death certifications, "Marriage Licenses", etc... The Surname Gregg is a Scottish surname, a variant of the Scottish Clan MacGregor. The Clan Gregor lost their right to use the MacGregor name for over a huundred years. SO they had to adopt variants (called "Septs"), or receive punishment up to and incliding death^{[1][2][3][4][5]}. It can also be of English as it is variant forms of the surname Gregory. The surnames are first recorded as Gregge in 1234, within the Liber feodorum, a document compiled in the reign of Henry II of England. Another early instance of the name is Gregge, recorded in 1306, within the Feet of Fines (for Essex); and as Greggez in 1504, within the Register of the Freemen of the City of York. It's also a respelling of German Grag, a nickname for a person with gray hair, from Middle Low German grage ‘gray’^[6]... Also ~ "The first hereditary surnames on German soil are found in the second half of the 12th century, slightly later than in England and France. However, it was not until the 16th century that they became stabilized. The practice of adopting hereditary surnames began in the southern areas of Germany, and gradually spread northwards during the Middle Ages. The German surname of GRAGG is of two-fold origin. It was originally an English nickname for someone with grey-hair or a grey beard, derived from the Old English word GROEG. It was also a Norman-French and Scottish habitation name from GRAYE in Calvados, so called from the Gallo-Roman personal name GRATUS meaning 'welcome and pleasing'. The name has travelled widely and has numerous variant spellings which include GREY, LEGRAY, GRAUER, GRAUMANN, SCHRAAWEN, GRAUBERD, GRAUBERG and GRUBARD, to name but a few. During the 17th century surnames were brought to Britain, North America and southern Africa by French Huguenot exiles. The Huguenots were French Protestants, and in 1572 large numbers of them were massacred in Paris on the orders of Queen Catherine de'Medici. Many of the survivors sought refuge in England and elsewhere. Although the Edict of Nantes (1598) officially guaranteed religious toleration, persecution continued, and the Edict was revoked by Louis XIV in 1685. It was then the trickle of emigration became a flood. Many migrated to England, while others joined groups of Dutch Protestants settling around the Cape of Good Hope. Others sailed across the Atlantic to establish themselves in North America. Notable members of the name include Thomas GRAY (1716-1771) was the English poet and author of 'Elegy in a Country Churchyard' and 'On a Distant Prospect of Eton College', and many more. Edward Whitaker GRAY (1748-1806) was the English botanist and physician. In 1773 he was appointed librarian to the College of Physicians and in 1787 became keeper of the natural history collections at the British Museum. An interesting member of the name was Elisha GRAY (1835-1901) the American Inventor born in Barnesville, Ohio. He was a manufacturer of telegraphic apparatus, his firm became the Western Electric Company. His 60 patents included a multiplex telegraph. He also claimed the invention of the telephone, but lost the patent rights to Alexander Graham Bell after a long legal battle in the US Supreme Court."^[7]

Sources

1. ↑ http://www.clangregor.com/membership/sept-family-names/
2. ↑ https://www.electriccanadian.com/esimages/clangregorsepts.jpg
3. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Gregor
4. ↑ http://www.thegreggs.biz/gfhp/R0-Na5.htm
5. ↑ http://www.clangregor.com/clan-gregor-society-septfamily-names/
6. ↑ https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=gragg#:~:text=GraggName%20Meaning%20English%3A%20possibly%20a%20variant%20of%20Cragg.,%E2%80%98gray%E2%80%99.%20This%20name%20is%20found%20predominantly%20in%20NC.
7. ↑ http://www.4crests.com/gragg-coat-of-arms.html

• Reaney, Percy Hilde; Wilson, Richard Middlewood (2006)
• "What's in a name?". www.ancestry.com. Retrieved 8 December 2009.