Bushong

Bushong is a surname found mostly in the United States, derived from the surname Boschung found mainly in Switzerland, but also in the Palatinate and other regions in Western Europe.

The American surname, Bushong and variant Bushon, prior to being anglicized, was the German-Swiss name, Boschung. The spelling was changed after immigration to Colonial America. The immigrants, Hans and Johann Nicholas both arrived as Boschung, Hans in 1731 and Johann Nicholas in 1732. The original ships manifests and transcriptions list them as Boschung, but the spelling was changed in their American lives.[1][2]

One favored theory is the surname is based on two syllables, Bosch and ung. Bosch is considered a Germanic topographical name, derived from the Latin word, boscus which translates to wood, as in forest.[3] Subsequently, the patronymic suffix ung was added to the original name and means descendants of (the Bosch).[4] It has been theorized that the reason to differentiate from an original Bosch family, with the addition of the suffix, was that there had been a large well established Bosch family. The patronymic suffix identified them as having separated by proximity from the original family.[5] In other words, the families who moved away were not the Bosch, they were the Boschung. All occurring as surnames were beginning to be the accepted practice.[6]

There are several Boschung family lines, originating in Switzerland, one of which started in 1750, when a line Bosson, changed its names spelling to Boschung.[7] Another line began in 1600 in Boltigen, Switzerland, with a name change from Studer, and this is believed to be beginning of the Colonial American Bushong.[8][9][10] However, the Boschung name is first noted in the 1520s in Jaun, Fribourg, Switzerland and in the 1530s a few miles away in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland.[nb 1] These families whether related or not represent the majority of the Boschung.[8] All would have been spoken a Swiss German dialect, more specifically its predecessor western High Alemannic dialect (Bernese German).

For the vast majority, the Bushong Family of America descend from two immigrants, Hans Boschung and Johann Nicholas Boschung.[8][12][13] Hans and Johann Nicholas Boschung arrived in port of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1731 and 1732 respectively.[1][2] They were Protestants of the Reformed Swiss sect, who left Switzerland and spent some years in the Palatinate.[nb 2]

Hans Boschung immigrated with his family on the ship Brittania and qualified for entry to the Colonies September 21, 1731. They were listed, Barbara age 37, and their children, Magdelen age 11, Hans Phillip age 9, Ana Barbara age 6, Christiana age 3.[1]

Johann Nicholas Boschung immigrated with his family on the ill-fated voyage of the pink John and William and qualified for entry to the Colonies October 17, 1732.[nb 3] Listed on the manifest as Paschun, with his wife, Magdalena (over 16) and their children, Hendrich, Eve, Andreas, Maria.[2]

The Bushongs originally settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where they were members of the Salem Hellers Reformed Church. [1][14][nb 4] Today descendants who can trace their ancestry back to Hans and Johann Nicholas Bushong number in the thousands.[8]

There are a few other family lines with the Bushong surname in America. Some are descended from French Catholics who immigrated from Nova Scotia, Canada to the United States in the 19th and 20th century while others are descended from slaves of the Bushong's prior to the American Civil War.[17][nb 5] There also appear to be a few different lines of European Bushongs. These families immigrated to the United States in the mid to late 19th century from what was a war torn central Europe and took the Bushong name. But with about 1.2 million other mostly Germans immigrants, there was at least one Greek Bushong.[nb 6] Their surnames all had various original spellings, Bushing, Busching, Buchen, Bushan, and others. During this period the most common immigration destination in the United States was New York, through Ellis Island.

Hans Bushong is known to have had grandchildren through five children.

Johannes Paul Eckman and Magdalena

Hans Philip and Anna Eva Hergard

Philip Grimm and Anna Barbara

John and Elizabeth Sprenkel

Jacob and Julianna Weigel

There are three known surviving lines, descended from Johann Nicholas Bushong and Magdalena. They are through Andreas and all had descendants.

John Bushong and Jennette Young

George Washington Bushong and Martha Davis

Henry Bushong and Isabelle Summers

In the beginning of the 20th century, it was thought that Colonial Bushongs descended from the French Beauchamps and that the name was originally spelled that way. It is not certain exactly when the myth originated, but in 1900 Oscar Kuhns published The Germans and Swiss settlements of colonial Pennsylvania: a study of the so-called Pennsylvania Dutch. In it he stated the Bushongs were French Huguenots and their name was originally Beauchamp...

"These German names almost all came from the Palatinate and Switzerland. Even today we can trace the Swiss origin of many-for instance, Urner (from Uri), Johns (Tschantz), Neagley (Naegeli), Bossler (Baseler). Some are of French Huguenot origin, which by combined German and English influence have often received a not very elegant or euphonious form: examples are Lemon (Le Mon), Bushong (Beauchamp)".

Rev. A. Stapleton published this book in 1901- "Memorials of the Huguenots in America, with special reference to their emigration to Pennsylvania"

"Beauchamp, — In 1731 arrived; Beauchamp and wife Barbara, the head of the "Bushong" family, now so numorous in America. He located in East Lampeter, near the Heller Church. He was born in France in 1692. His son Jacob located in Berks county and was the head of the Bushong family of Berks county, while another son, Peter, emigrated to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, and founded the Southern branch."

One theory fostered by some, was that there were numerous different lines of Bushongs entering Colonial America, some with different spellings. To date there is no evidence to support this theory and to the contrary, thousands of Bushong descendants are listed as descendants of Hans Boschung and Johann Nicholas Boschung's son, Andreas. With a charting project for the entire Bushong 1930 United States Census completed and most identified, it makes multiple lines that much more improbable.[18]

This myth was first mentioned in the late 1980s or early 1990s by several Bushong researchers, who perceived a similarity between the surnames Bosang and Bushong. It was suggested that David Bosang, whose name was spelled Bosseng before it was Anglicized, had been a Bushong in Europe prior to leaving. Though lacking any European documentation, the myth gained a degree of legitimacy through repeated publishing of Bosang's United States documentation mixed with the Bushong name. It is probable that Bosseng is a variant spelling of the surname Bossong.

"While the Synod of South Holland was in session in Dort, 1731, eight hundred exiled Palatines passed through the place to take ship at Rotterdam for America. They were visited by the whole Synod in a body and were furnished with provisions and medicines. After Christian exhortation, prayer and singing, they were dismissed with the assurance that they might rely upon the Church of Holland for support in their new abode."-- Ger. Ref. Almanac p. 22 for 1865.[1]