Brazenor and Brazener surname group

Several years ago when I was researching my wife’s Shropshire ancestors I came across the name Catherine Brazenor. She was marrying my wife’s 3G grandfather in 1810, in the village of Hyssington, which straddles the border between England and Wales. No one in the family had heard of the name before and a search of the local phone book showed that while there were plenty of people with the names Preece, Everall, Marston, Redge, Passant, Sandals, Corfield, Wilkes and Wykes, all contemporary local names back in 1810, there were no Brazenors. Where had they come from and what had happened to them? It was relatively easy to trace them back, at least as far as about 1640, firstly to the village of Pontesbury and before that to Worthen, but what had caused them to disappear from Shropshire’s very green and pleasant land? Had they just died out or had they moved away? If the latter why did they go, where did they go and what did they do when they got there? Some of these questions have been answered in part and this group of researchers hopes to fill in the gaps. If you have any information that you can contribute or if you would like to learn about your name and its origin please join us.

The Brazenor name and its variants, the main one of which is Brazener, is the subject of a one-name study. The name is registered with the Guild of One-Name Studies (GOONS). If you would like to learn more about this study go to www.one-name.org or contact brazenor@one-name.org

The Brazenor and Brazener records for the 1841 and 1851 Census of England and Wales are now archived on the One-Name Studies site.

There is now a site for people seeking BRAZENOR ANCESTORS at
http://brazenor.wordpress.com