The growing list of Bourgeois families in America

I haven't written in a while. I've been cleaning up some stuff and chasing an Irishman who doesn't want to found. Have you missed me?

I met with cousin Lester recently, and he shared materials that he gathered on his recent trip to Somerset and Celina, Ohio. He had a wonderful time, met some terrific people in the libraries, courthouses, and genealogical societies; even had a tour of the "old Bushu place" by the neighbor just north of Morand and Meinrad's old farms.

The reason I'm posting is to add another family to the list of people who can trace their roots back to Strueth, Haut Rhin.  Bear with me here.

So the first family to arrive in the US, in 1827, was Michael Bourgeois, born 1782 (to Michael Bourgeois and Joanna Flury), his wife, Anna Marie Turaine, and their six children. The second to arrive, in 1828, was a mystery man (possibly Michael's uncle)  and his wife, another Michael and Mary Ann. The third to arrive, in 1833, was Michael's (1782) younger brother Morand and eight of his nine children. The fourth immigrant was that of Morand's oldest child, Xavier, his wife Theresa, and their children in 1850.

Lester Bushue is descended from the first immigrants, Michael and Anna Marie. Their second son was Meinrad, and he and his first wife, Mary, produced Jonas whose descendants became BUSHUES

Mary Rivers (that would be I) is descended from Meinrad's younger brother Morand. My sisters and I are descended from Morand and his wife Mary Ann's second son, Frank. We spell the name BUSHU.

So that's Michael's line.

Morand 1785, Michael's little brother, didn't stay in Somerset for long. He and family ended up in Mercer County, Ohio. The BUSHUR of Celina, Ohio descend from THIS Morand. Thelma Bushur and her sisters Marjorie and Evelyn compiled the family tree for this line.

Lester, in his recent travels, discovered another line.  Meinrad, the sixth son of Morand 1785 (don't you dearly wish they'd had some imagination when naming children?) is the direct ancestor of the BUSCHOR family. Lester found the documentation for THIS family in the Mercer County Library.

Of course, in the growing mountain of paper that is my office I have all these documents. Oy!


So this should make your head spin. My ancestor Morand BUSHU had three sons, only one of whom had children, but he had five sons. So there's a fair number of Bushus.

Lester's ancestor Meinrad BUSHUE only had three sons, but Jonas had five. There are a lot of Bushues

Morand BUSHUR had six sons; lots of opportunity for the family name passing on, at least one of whom passed on BUSCHOR.

So at this point we know that Michael Bourgeois and Joanna Flury, parents of the immigrant men, produced four different last names. I can't help wondering how many more spellings, and relatives, are out there. Of course, the family genes continue in the thousands of women who've produced lots of babies; I'm not a big fan of the whole "carrying on the name" thing, so that's not my point. My point is that, if we just consider the male side, we may find there are many more permutations of BOURGEOIS, the name that started it all. Let me know if your family may be one of them.