The Fay Family Papers
James M. G. Fay
SUMMARY

At the very beginning of his "Fay Family Papers," James establishes his belief that the name is derived from French, and indeed, from the Oc language. His list of those interested in the name "Fay" includes "linguists interested in the Oc language name which is ours... ". I believe this to be a serious comment; unlike the remark about the "pre-Fay lineage to the Roman Emperor ancestor Hadrian" (well, it IS true that some one can claim Hadrian as an ancestor.. unless Hadrian's line died out. And certainly that someone would be "pre-Fay". But I do not think that someone writing in 1956 would seriously propose that Juvenal, the Roman satirist, was a Fay: see James' writings later in the Fay Family Papers. I detect more than a little satire in James' own writings!

Where not otherwise indicated, the following material is transcribed from the images on site; it is quoted as accurately as possible.

Tradition--The ancestors come to Sicily or are there Ca. 900 B.C. (This found in old Roman Empire papers by late genealogists, Louis Fay-De la Roche of near Yssingeaux (Haute Loire) France, and his peer, the venerable Prof. A. Boudon-Lashermes).
Proved--- The lineage of the pre-Fay family 920 A.D. to ca 117 A.D.
Fay, proper name for first time in history--in 920 A.D. The Fay Family Papers now starts in 920 A.D. but pre-Fay papers are in the Vermont Historical Society indexed files. Anyone can supplement these details. The title Fay Family Papers belongs to all Fay individuals or to any historian willing to contribute to them. We thank many, but the list of these friends is much, very much too long to publish at present. We cannot either give now the many thousands of names of towns in France and the thousands of lieux in America where the name is and has been found. We cannot even give the too long, yet limited, list of place names where the name Fay remains graven in history.

[and this seems strange, for there are not THAT many of these place names; in fact, he does list some later, and other authors list a few others. But the list is definitely 'limited'.

Another reason that I take a lot of this material with a very large serving of salt is his remark that the ancestors' presence in Sicily has been found in old Roman Empire papers. I do not believe that anyone seriously believes, or has believed, that the name is to be found IN Rome or in that part of the Empire where it would come to the attention of those who wrote such 'old Roman Empire papers,' as early as the Roman Empire! He refers to 117 A.D., which WOULD be the time of the empire.. but gives no evidence; and the dates and supposed background that he gives for Juvenal later are so patently wrong .. well, this just is not to be accepted at face value.]

[After a second on directions, and a couple of short entries, James resumes:]

Alias Fay Families. The first not Fay house in history appears ca. 1125 as Fay de Bromley (Domesday Bk.; O'Hart; Familles du Poitou). The house lasted four generations. It became Fay in England but in France it was (at its third change of family name) Faye, but only for about six months in 1152 at the Court of Eleonore d'Aquitaine, ex-queen of the Franks and (next) Queen of England. It had been Chatellerault, but the real name was that of the amoral Montfort

family. B England never produced a Fay family, the next were real Fay French Huguenots C In Eire (Fay of the Irish theatre): in Chateaugay, P.Q.; some Fahy; Fahey, etc., have changed their name to Fay to anglicize their family, ashamed of their race, they showed a gross ignorance because there is no such family name of English origin. The name Fay is Oc and of no other language. D In Bennington, Vermont, the son of an Irish laborer took the name Fay legally. He lives and has not a drop of Fay blood. There is no male Fay living in Bennington, Vt. There are, however, some wonderful Fay in Dorset (Bennington County) Vt....

[more specific entries]

Detroit (Mich.) University, Hist. Div. re Albi.
Devesset: Arch.
Disabled Am. Vets, Pa.: George Fay, Commander, fam. record wanted.
Domesday: Biblio: Dominican, INquisition, Oc, Capdeuil.
Dorset, Vt.: Fay Williamsburg, Pa., Tree; Antrim, O.P.F. Gilbert fam., Rutland, Vt.
Drogheda (Co. Kildare) Eire: Fay's Food.
Drame Dept.: Fay fam., Fay le Clos; immortals, archeology.
Dursus de Courcy fam.: Ex-Fay, Ulster, Roman eagle, Fay de la Roche and Boudon, generalogists; MacMahon (ex Courcy, ex Fay).
Dutch: Biblio, Wallonne at Leide; Huguenots; re Marshall F. la T. Mg.
Duvivier de Fay Solignac at Lurcy Levy (Allier) genealogy, please?
Eagle: Coats of arms 150 to 1966: Fay, Bayle, Dursus
Egypt: Battles
Eire: All real Fay fam. originate in Fay de Fay at Fay le Froid. Fahy, Fahey are not Fay; vide: Battle, Bourg Archard, Boyne, Cath., countries, Dubline, St. Peter's Str. French Ch., Fay-Huguenots, Fay Gerlande.
Encyclop, Spanish: in libraries.
Engineering: Museums, Portland Port, Me.
England: No Fay fam. ever began in Eng.; Bromley (alias Fay); Fay Huguenots Border of New Forest; Fay from America (Liverpool, London, Brixton Charlton, Mass.; Westboro, Mass.; Oswego, Onondaga, N.Y.P.Q.). Vide Oc, Sylvester Fay 1657 to N.Y. Read books of Huguenot Soc.
Epitaphs: Biblio, Fay and Athies.
Escutcheon: Biblio.
Essex Junction, Vt.: From John IV, 1-117 Fay immortal of Bennington.
Estree-Denecourt: Fay Church (Somme); Abbe Chambris important; bdgs., gisants.
Expilly: Biblio, re: Fay Geography (in N.Y.P.L.).
Exoudun: Fay Fam. D.S.; Fam. du Poitou in V.H.S.; Huguenots in Gt. Britain.
Eysette: Biblio.
Failly de Rumilly, de Fay. What is connection with original Fay de Fay Tree? Geneal. wanted?
Fains la Folie (origin history wanted?). Faino (oc) La Rouine, weasel.
Fairy: Nothing to do with fam. name Fay.
Falaise (Calvados): Fay in Rolls wanted?

--- FAY ---

FAY IN OC and oil languages became a proper name in 920 A.D. for a vast township, for a feudal state, the first family ever. Viz: Fay de Fay at Fay le Froid in Gaul, land of Velay, Languedoc. In 1223 France and French began. The oui language gives the Teutonic rooted word "hetre" for Fay, and English gives the Saxon Germanic word "beech". Oui and Anglo-Saxon did not give the word Fay. Oc also gave us Ver green, later added a "t" to become of oui. Vermont became Montvert in French oui; Barre---des Cevennes; Montpellier (H.L.); Fayette in fem. not a diminutive but a multiple of fay--in French became Hetraie, in Engl. Beech-grove and in Eire and Calif. "Faywood". Faino became fouine, became weasel. But Latin mistakenly translated Fay fam. name to Faino. Fay suffered terrible translations to Latin. "Fagus" is modern Latin for "fay" the tree. I doubt that it appeared outside of modern botanic Latin but this may be discussible.

Fay in geography includes at the minimum 5 mountains, a number of hills and mounts, hundreds of towns (most named after a Fay individual) also Belfay, Beaufay, Le Fay, Fay le Froid-sur Lignon, Fay le Clos, Fay aux Loges (origin not found), Fay Corners, Fay (Feyt) de St. Jean de l'Heurs, and de St. Jean de Bournay, Fay from Champagne to North Sea are very numerous (abbeys, churches, cemeteries, chateaux, and also Athies which are all Fay); (Fayet and Fayette, Fays, Deux Fays, all multiple fay trees) Faymont, Faymoreau. (Fayolle not Fay.) Fay St. Turion (Biblio: La Roque; Dict. d la Nob.); Fay's Ferry on Onion River, Vt.; Fay's Ford on Boyne; Faystor Vt. (aki paradise), Fay Plateau. Vide Chambon, 4 seasons resort of France, Fay (Somme) vide Chambris and nearby Fenconcourt, Roye, Herleville, Hyencourt, Athies, Abancourt, Carbonel, Canisy, Moyencourt, Mons en Chanssee; Fay sous Bois (Bib. Anselme). Fay sous Hornoy (and vicinity Abancourt, Allery, Bailleul, Ayraines, Limeux, Vergies, Vaux en Amienois, Picquigny, Senarpont, Poix, Oisemont, Gamaches, Chateaux at Fay (Orne). Fay (Oise), Solignac by Gilhoc; Fay and Athies Somme, Flers le Petit; Fay (Amiens), etc., etc.

Library: Fay Lib at Fayville in Southboro, Mass.; Annonay, etc. Fayville (Bennington) Vt.; Fay de Sternfeld (Germ.).
Author: Blaise de Fay Solignac. FAY farms, homesteads. Vide Jacques de Fay, genealogiste; Issarles lake, Hamlets and quarters, villages, streams. Halls and streets. Vide: Westboro Hist. Soc. 5 Cyrus Fay sr., Westboro, Mass.

Fay le Clos (Drome) France with La Motte Calaure, Chateau de Galaure. Is a Fay country where branches of the Fay de Capdeuil, St. Quentin, l'Herm left eternal history. Monsieur E. Charlgnon (Soc. d'Archeologie de la Drome) of Muriels (Dr.) has, at Fay le Clos, discovered prehistoric lakes and fossils. The town of Castrum de Galabre, Gallo Roman 4th and 5th c., has been uncovered with treasures of coins (Boston Mus. of Fine Arts, please note), the region has also revealed enormous quantities of skeletons, all bunched near each other, of mammouths, deer, bears, pre-horses, finds which await development (U. of Vt., Museum of Nat. Hist., N.Y.C., please note and act now). Marshall Fay de Latour Maubourg was, like his ancestors, a Huguenot. In 1804 he married in the Calvinist temple at Utrecht (records at V.H.S. from Leide Fichlers).

Ex-Fay families include such as Bayle des Hermeos, gen. at V.H.S.; early de Bouzole, de Bernard, Dorsus de Courcy, previously de Courcy, which produced the de MacMahon (Eire and France) and conquered Ulster. The Solignac returned to family name ca. 1652 A.D. (after 200 year). Athies: some left the name Fay for only one generation; some for a longer period, some may not have resumed. I believe the Athy of Erie are some of these (Investigators please note).

Immortals: Four related French Fay of the Jr. Capdeuil Branch; General and Marshall Fay de la Tour Maubourg, General J. B. Fay de Solignac; Mayor of Lyon Fay (de Peyraud) de Sathonay (Napoleonic Wars). The whole family of Capt. Stephen III, 10, 35, Fay of Westboro, Hardwick, Mass.

Presbyterian Fay families in America have generally designated two so called Scotch-Irish families, which acquired their Scotch and Irish in South Ireland, as the name was never "old Scotish". LIkewise Wales has no record of any kind of a Fay throughout its whole history, not even to this day. However, Fay blood hid there behind the de Courcy (ex Fay) who wedded the daughter of the Black Prince. The Presbyterian Fay are Huguenots. Vide Malone, N.Y. tree and W. J. Fay in O. P. F. Much about Wm. John Fay, a hero of this house, is on file at the V.H.S. thanks to Mrs. Marion (Fay) Jones, starter of the genealogy of her branch at Malone, N.Y. Vide Bdgs. For the fake genealogy of the Fay House in Cambridge, Mass., compare with facts in O.P.F. The V.H.S. is becoming rich in Fay genealogies of France especially. Vide: Biblio; Charlton; Rev. du Vivarais, Immortals, archives, Boudon, Descours, Christiane Fay, Jacques de Fay, Alice Deitrick, Fay de Gerlande, Fam. du Poitou, Beauchet Filleau, St. Jean, de Bournay; Fey; in li-

braries la Maison de la Fay, de Hautefort en Perigord by Marquis de St. Saud (not Fay) but connected by 900 years of friendship; Cambray; Col Fay, Staten Island, N.Y., genealogist; societies, Guriel (biblio) Framond, L'Heritier, etc.

[and at this point, James turns to more specifics of different lines]