-=> Quoting Jame Clay to Miles Maxted on 23 Oct 10  11:02:06 <=-

 JC> variation, on my fathers side, of "Claye";  by tradition, we (my side
 JC> of the Clay family here in the States) trace our lineage back to a
 JC> "John Claye" of Derby, by way of a John Thomas Clay who come over to
 JC> the "Virgina Colony" in the early 1600's.  The family has spread out
 JC> all of the place here since then... 

Part of my heritage is from those early English that settled "Virginia
Colony" also... but no Clays there as far as I remember.  Would Henry
Clay, of KY, who served in the House in the early 1800's, have been one
of your family?

 JC> I didn't know but vaguely thought that the family name might have
 JC> derived from someone who worked with clay or who was from some area
 JC> known for the mineral.  But then I ran across someone here with the
 JC> family name of "Klae", which certainly sounds the same and appears to
 JC> come from mainland Europe...  Which makes me wonder about just how
 JC> long the "Claye's" had been around, and about Normans... 

Klae sounds like it could be from Nederlands... but of course, some
surnames developed along parallel lines... ;)

ttyl      neb

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