Origin of Surname
The name is probably derived from the old French for white poplar, suggesting that the original holder of the name lived near a grove of these trees.
However, it may have a derivation specific to Jersey and mean 'a Breton' because the early Jersey poet Wace refered to the Bretons as Les Brez.
Early records
Bree is not found in the Assize Roll of 1309 nor the Jersey Chantry Certificate of 1550 but a Symon Bree was born in St Martin about 1500 and had sons Richard and Edouard.
Variants
- Bray, 1528
- Bree, 1500
- Braye
Family records
Family trees
There is considerable overlap and duplication between these trees, most of which are believed to link back to Symon Bree. Some changes were made in 2021 and further links added
- Descendants of Symon Braye
- Descendants of Edouard Braye
- Descendants of Richard Braye
- Descendants of Edouard Bree
- Descendants of Philip Bree
Church records
- Bree baptisms in Jersey
- Bree marriages in Jersey (groom)
- Bree marriages in Jersey (bride)
- Bree burials in Jersey
Family histories and biographies
Great War service
Occupation records
Family wills
Burial records
Family businesses
- Elias Bree was a shoemaker at 17 King Street in the 1850s
- No 57 King StreetC Bray had a boot and shoe warehouse at 57 King Street in 1900]]
Family photo album

Helier Bree, awarded the Military Medal and Belgian Croix de Guerre in the Great War. Born in 1887 he was the son of Helier Bree and Jane Elizabeth, nee Atkins
Family gravestones
Click on any image to see a larger version. See the Jerripedia gravestone image collection page for more information about our gravestone photographs. Images of gravestones in other cemeteries will be added progressively
Tips
The church record links above will open in a new tab in your browser and generate the most up-to-date list of each set of records from our database. These lists replace earlier Family page baptism lists, which were not regularly updated. They have the added advantage that they produce a chronological listing for the family name in all parishes, so you do not have to search through A-Z indexes, parish by parish.
We have included some important spelling variants on some family pages, but it may be worth searching for records for a different spelling variant. Think of searching for variants with or without a prefix, such as Le or De. To search for further variants, or for any other family name, just click on the appropriate link below for the first letter of the family name, and a new tab will open, giving you the option to choose baptism, marriage or burial records. You will then see a list of available names for that type of record and you can select any name from that list. That will display all records of the chosen type for that family name, and you can narrow the search by adding a given name, selecting a parish or setting start and end dates in the form you will see above. You can also change the family name, or search for a partial name if you are not certain of the spelling
The records are displayed 30 to a page, but by selecting the yellow Wiki Table option at the top left of the page you can open a full, scrollable list. This list will either be displayed in a new tab or a pop-up window. You may have to edit the settings of your browser to allow pop-up windows for www.jerripediabmd.net. For the small number of family names for which a search generates more than 1,500 records you will have to refine your search (perhaps using start or end dates) to reduce the number of records found.
New records
Since August 2020 we have added several thousand new records from the registers of Roman Catholic, Methodist and other non-conformist churches. These will appear in date order within a general search of the records and are also individually searchable within the database search form
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