This project was created as a result of some unusual finds in the Farr Surname Project. The Bedfordshire Farrs of England found a name change in the early 1600s of Farre. Then in the 1500s it changed to Fayre, Fayrey, Fayrye, Fery, Ferry Feary. In trying to find where the new variant spellings came from the records all pointed to the French surname "Ferrers" which is pronounced "Fairy" in French. When Henry de Ferrers came to England from Normandy with William the Conqueror, they spoke and wrote in French for nearly the next 300 years. The English would spell the Frenchmen's names as they heard them such as "Henry" became "Harry" because the French pronounced "Henri" like "Harry" thus the nickname "Harry" was born for the name "Henry or Henri". The English would refer to their king as "King Harry". We feel from much research that the same thing happened to many other names including "Ferrers" We have found the name being changed to Feris and Ferrys. In old documents the "y" was used instead of "i". Some of the Fayrey lines that we have traced downward from the 1400s changed to Fairy, Fairey, Fary and Farey once spelling rules were adopted in the mid 1700s. Some lines changed to Fayre then Farre and Farr. To make things more complicated some of the Farr lines changed spelling to Furr and Firr.

The Ferrers/Ferrer spelling also continued in the noble line with the original spelling down to the present. Some of the Ferrers from England/Scotland went to Spain in the 1200s to help Jaime the I of Aragon oust the Moors fron Valencia. They were succesful and were given land in Aragon and Cataluña and they became Barons etc. in Spain.