Join us to discover your Prater and allied kin ancestry! As of today the family historian Gary Benton Prather has collected/researched files of many tens of thousands of members of our family. It took the past 45+ years to compile these findings. In the process, he recorded names, dates, events and related notes. You may choose to include some of Gary's data when writing your own report of family history. If you do, please give credit to the information provider. None of Gary's copyrighted information may be reproduced in any form for profit. The files cover almost ALL known branches of our United States of America family. Family lines were found in Canada, England, Mexico and a few in Australia and New Zealand. As you read, note the diversity of spellings in our family name, “Praers”, “Pretor”, “Prater”, “Prator”, “Praytor”, and “Prathers”. This diversity is reflected in documentation found in census, marriage, pension, and British records as well as in tax lists, land deeds, etc. Name spelling variations may be attributed to a lack of education of recording clerks, or that standardization of spelling was not valued at that time in history. Standardization of spelling surnames and given names has been a relatively recent invention when we consider the great span of historical time. Spelling in a given geographical region was, and is, obviously arbitrary. The Prater, Prather, Praytor, etc. families are thought, by English genealogists, to be one of the family groups known as the "Ui Briain". Several different families with very differing names are said to have descended from that group. "Ui Briain" descended from "Brion", a 5th century King of Connacht, an ancient kingdom in Ireland. Other kings such as ytherick, a king of central Wales in the 8th century; Brockwell, Prince of Powys; Gerald of Windsor; Kingstons, all claim a direct bloodline of Brion. Another theory is that the family descended from the Roman magistrate that came into Brittan in the 6th century. Another theory is that the family descended from the nobility of Denmark in the 9th century. Still another theory, which is probably the most likely, has the Prater family descending from Baron Hurbert d' Rye, through his son, who came into England with William the Conqueror in 1066. Baron Hurbert d' Rye lived in Rye Castle, Preaux, France and was born about 990. His son, Williamus became known as d' Preaux in France and later Williamus de Praers in England. Many of his descendants were married into the same allied families as the earlier generations of those using the "Prater" name in England. Only continued research can uncover more details about these theories. ============================================================================ *...including the surnames PRATER / PRATHER / PRAYTHER / PRATOR / PRAYTOR / PRAYTER ============================================================================ For further study, see the book offering at: http://prathergenealogy.com/notesbook.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Prater/Prather Families- Their Lives and Times" Decades of Gary's Research Notes Now Available - 690+ PAGES!!! by Gary Benton Prather ============================================================================ ...maintained by H Martin Prather, Jr ________ Send any corrections to Gary Benton Prather at gbprather@aol.com For more than minor changes, Family Group Sheets are preferred to minimize misinterpretation. AND PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR SOURCES. This helps to mediate any disputes in data.