The Gravatt Family
© 2003-2008 R. L. Steinacker
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The Gravatt Family © 2003-2008 R. L. Steinacker |
| Origins of the
Name The first rule in doing Gravatt genealogy is to not worry about how the name is spelled. A Gravatt is a Gravett, a Gravitt, a Grevat, a Gravitt, a Grevit, a Gravot(t),a Garvet, a Garavatt, and a Grivitt, etc. In fact, anyone who has done any research on the Gravatts in the United States has seen the name spelled a variety of creative (often surprising!) ways. In public records, the name might even begin with a "C" instead of a "G", and the "v" in the middle might become an "n" , "f", or a "u". Whatever way the name is spelled, most people with Gravatt ancestry believe that the surname is of French origin. The surname does , in fact, exist in France, and it also exists in England. Sallie Gwathmey Gravatt Fox , author of the book, "The Gravatt Family of the Rappahannock Valley In Virginia", says there "were Gravatts in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries." She gives a few examples of Gravatts in the records, the earliest of which is the Christening record of Robart Gravatt in 1630. She goes on to say, "The first (Gravatts) in Virginia spelled their name Grevett and Gravett. Others have added an e and spelled the name Gravatte. However it is spelled, all variations have come from the French Gravat." While I could not find "Gravatt" in a French surname book, I did find it in an English surname book, which said that the name meant a "wooded area." Sallie Fox's book says that the name Gravatt was taken from the place where the family lived. "They lived in a grove and the name was Grove or Grave, with the diminutive suffix at, meaning 'A little grove'." At least one place in France bears the name -- La Gravette, a site where archaelogical discoveries have been made. Another location of the family in France is established by portions of a letter, written in 1958, by a Gravet in Paris to an American Gravatt inquiring about family origins.
Origins in Colonial America
There appear to have been two main groups of the Gravatt family in colonial days -- the northern branch settled in the environs of Pennsylvania and New Jersey and the southern branch settled in Virginia. Both Gravatt families were in the New World before the Revolutionary War, and both families fostered patriot soldiers. While my own Gravatt roots would appear to come from the southern branch of the family, I am including some info on both branches, as well as more detailed information on my own lines.
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