Hi my name is Tim Treeby. I started researching my own Family Tree in 1986 but could only do research as and when time and money allowed as back then involved trips to Record Offices around the country. Most branches were fairly easy, but when it came to the Treeby line found that had at least 3 possible people for my 4xGreatGrandFather in Modbury, so started reconstructing all the Tre(e)by families found in Modbury, then realised then the name was found in adjacent parishes, but only in a very small area of Devon, based around Holbeton, Modbury, Yealmpton. So decided to expand to include all Tre(e)bys as is quite possible that all are related.

As the Internet grew and more Records and Information were put on has become easier to do the Research.

I therefore registered with the Guild in 2015 and in 2017 set up a DNA Project for the Tre(e)by Name.

Registered variant of the name is TREBY.

Have seen various transcription errors and/or different recorded spelling depending on who wrote the original document so can be recorded on Indexes as FREEBY, FREELY, TREELY, TRUBY, TREWBY.

Some of the more famous Tre(e)bys are

Sir George Treby (1643-1700) - Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and MP for Plympton Erle. This branch built Plympton House and also owned Goodamoor House now the main House at Dartmoor Zoo

John Wright Treeby (1809-1882) - Builder and MP for Lyme Regis

Thomas Wright Treeby (1817-1874) - Brother of the above and Inventor of the Treeby Chain Gun.

Frank Treeby (1862-1940) - With his Half Brother Ernest Bolton started the firm Treeby&Bolton in Keswick, Cumbria

According to an ONS database as of September 2002, There are some 357 TREEBY's ranking it 14,519 most common surname and 188 TREBY's ranking it 22,183 most common surname.

According to the website http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/ which is a study done by the University College of London (UCL)
the most populous county for the Surname in both 1881 and 1998 is Devon.

Some of the Data that I have collected so far is

• England & Wales Census (1851-1911)
• GRO Births (1837-1916)
• GRO Marriages (1837-1916)

Partial Data that I have include

• Probate Calender Indexes (1858-Present)
• Baptisms from various Parishes

A DNA Project was set up in April 2017. For more details see project website for more details.

Data can be found at Treeby Datastores

There is a Facebook Group which can be found at https://www.facebook.com/groups/treeby/