About Me
This profile was created to reconnect and help trace the heritage of the Braveboy, Braboy, and Brayboy families. My name is Justin Braboy-Hapner and I recently began doing research on our family name. I have discovered that everyone with the surname Braveboy, Braboy, or Brayboy is related, no matter how distant, regardless of blood or marriage. Our Native American roots stem from the Lumbee-Tuscarora Tribe located in North Carolina. The Lumbee Tribe is the largest tribe East of the Mississippi and the 9th largest in the Nation. Tuscarora is the land that occupies the northeastern part of North Carolina. I am told that our family name originated from a man named David Braveboy, who was one of the first Lumbee-Tuscarora Tribe members to own land in NC. Both the names Braboy and Brayboy directly descended from the surname Braveboy. It is likely that the name changed and adapted during the migration process. One hypothesis to the origin of our surname traces all the way back to England. During the early and mid-1800s, the English migrated to the U.S. on ships and settled in North Carolina. According to the census records of that period, there were many Englishmen with the names' "Braby" and "Brabee", as well as numerous other variations of this surname. After arriving in America these European Americans either enslaved or married within the Native American community. Those who were enslaved were treated like any other person of "color" at the time, and were forced to adopt their master's name. Those Native women who married also took on this new surname. From this point, there are many theories one could surmise as to how the name evolved. This is also a valid hypothesis as to how the Lumbee Tribe became tri-racial over time. There is a mixture in Indian-American, African-American, and European-American blood in our family and most Lumbee Indians. Many Lumbee's, Braveboy's included, were forced to migrate away from North Carolina. Braveboy's migrated, dividing themselves among many States, including Texas, Kentucky, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Missouri, New York, and Ontario, Canada. Today the "Braveboy Family" resides in nearly every State, parts of Canada, and even Australia. It is extremely easy for a families' lineage to travel and separate rapidly. For instance: My Grandfather, Ollie Braboy, was born in Paducah, Kentucky; My Mother, Penny Braboy, was born in Detriot, Michigan; I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio; Who knows where my children will be born? I have recently learned that there are family reunions held in the south, specifically in NC. My objective is to find as much of our family as possible, reconnect the lineage, educate myself, and reinstill a sense of pride in our surname... We all have much more family than we can possibly imagine... I wan't to explore that! It has been said that "In order to know where you're going, it is necessary to know where you've been..."
