Posted by Robert Moutray on November 23, 19102 at 21:23:59:
In Reply to: moutray&moultrie posted by terry moultray on January 29, 19102 at 19:29:14:
: im perty suty that we are related to moultrie becouse the moutrays were named moultrie im still puzzled why the variaions of the surname? if anyone nos please let me now its realy buging me
Hi Terry,
The reasons there are so many variations(I counted 20+ at one time)of MOUTRAY, is because long ago before typewriters(and now computers)everything was hand written. Well, you can guess that everybody's writing is different and some letters look like others when written out in long-hand. The most often letter in our name that is mistook is the "U". many, many times it looks like an "N".
And the way many more variations came about was from the spoken word. MOUTRAY is supposed to pronounced...."MOO-TREE", so written out it would look like MUTRE, or MUTREE, or MUTRIE, or MOTREE, or MOTRIE, or MOTRY.etc.,etc., you can see how variations.we can get so many
This first time-line I saw the MOUTRIE variation was around the 1500's in Scotland.It was also a common thing to change ones name when going to a new country.
Such is the case with MOULTRIE. In 1729 a Dr. John Moutray changed his name to MOULTRIE when he immigrated to the US. From him there are many here in the US. His son, John Moultrie, was the first Governor of Florida, but during the Reolutionary War being faithful to Great Britan, he went to England. There he married the 2nd time, a woman of Aston Hall. (you can do a word search on the internet of Aston Hall and see what it was like. The old homeplace is still standing and used as a hotel-bed and breakfast inn). Some of John,s offspring however, remained in the US, and settled on the East coast around NC , SC, Georgia, Florida.There is a county named after them in Georgia. And a fort was renamed Ft. Moultrie, where another John Moultrie held off the British during the Rev. War. It's still there too. 2 years ago, i ran across, and visited, a tavern in Charleston, S.C. called Moultrie's Tavern.
As per your spelling "MOULTRAY", I would be interested in who your ancestors are. About 5 generations ago, a Septom Riley Moutray left Missouri (where a branch ot the Moutrays came in 1810),for California by joining a wagon train.In some of the writings by the head of the train, his name was entered as "Sept Moultray". (he married the 16 year old daughter of the leader of the wagontrain). He settled in Washington state, and some of his ancestors settled in Calif. Are you a relative of those in Calif.?
Please email anything you may have and maybe I can help you also.Hope this shed SOME light on your subject.
Robert Moutray
St Louis Mo
bmoutray@swbell.net
PS...whats the date written "19102" ???