Category: Bulcher

Wedding Wednesday: Pierre Francois Burtcher and Marie Celestine Voisinet

6/17/2014

This past Sunday, I posted the 1850 U.S. Census of Pierre François and Marie Celestine (Voisinet) Burtcher (also spelled Bultechert), my husband's 4x great-grandparents. Today, I am posted their marriage record. They were married on 12 May 1846 in Évette, Belfort, France. (Click images for larger views.)

Civil Marriage Record, Pierre Francois Burtcher and Marie Celestine Voisinet, May 1846

Pierre François was the son of Joseph Burtcher and Anne Claire Jardot. Marie Celestine was the daughter of Georges Voisinet and Marie Rose Jardot. Both fathers were farmers. Six months (yep!) after the wedding, the couple welcomed their first child into the world. Marie Rose Julie Burtcher was born 13 Nov 1846 in Évette. She was the couple's only child that was not born in America. They came to America shortly after she was born.

Civil Birth Record, Marie Rose Julie Burtcher, Nov 1846

For reference, the village of Évette is located near the larger city of Belfort, which is located in northeast France in the Territoire de Belfort.

Marriage and Birth Record Source: http://www.archives.cg90.fr/?id=etat_civil
Évette, Births, Deaths, Marriages 1803-1869

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Census Sunday: The Burtcher/Bulcher Family, 1850

6/14/2014

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Around 1847, Pierre François Burtcher, with his young wife, Marie-Celestine (Voisinet) Burtcher and daughter, Marie Rose Julie, left their home of Évette, Belfort, France and sailed to America. They settled in a small French Catholic farming community in southwestern Shelby County, Ohio. The first U.S. Census in which they appear is the 1850 census. (Click on image for larger view.)

Year: 1850, Place: Loramie, Shelby, Ohio, Roll: M432_729, Page: 243B, Image: 193

In America, Pierre François went by the name of 'Francis' or 'Frank' and Marie-Celestine went by just 'Celeste' or 'Celestine.' On this census form, their surname looks more like 'Baltaser' than Burtcher, but because of the family members' first names and ages, I have confirmed that this is the correct family. (In fact, most of the French family names in this particular 1850 enumeration district are grossly misspelled - there must have been a great language barrier in this part of the county at this time, when most of the French immigrants were relatively new arrivals.) The Burtcher family eventually changes their surname to 'Bulcher', and that is the name found on Pierre François' and Marie-Celestine's gravestone.

According to his Marie Rose Julie's birth record, Francis Burtcher (or Bultechert as it is spelling in her birth record) was a farmer by trade in France, and he continued to farm in Ohio, as well. Although difficult to read, the 1850 Loramie Township Agriculture Census shows that Francis owns 50 acres of land, only 12 of which are 'improved.' He has one horse, two milk cows, and two oxen. Interestingly, he had 21 pigs, which was more than even some of the larger farms in the area had. In the previous year, the farm produced 24 bushels of wheat, 18 bushels of oats, and as seen on page 2, 35 bushels of potatoes and 75 pounds of butter.

Year: 1850, Place: Loramie, Shelby, Ohio, Archive Collection Number: T1159, Roll: 9, Line: 37, Agriculture

At the time of this census, Francis and Celestine had two daughters, Marie Rose Julie (who went by Rose or Rosa), and Josephine Lucine (who usually went by Lucy). Sometime between 1854 and 1860, the Bulcher family moved into the larger French Catholic community in neaby Darke County, Ohio. In that time frame, they also added five children to their family. They had a total of eleven children, with the youngest being born in 1867.

(Pierre François and Marie-Celestine Burtcher were my husband's 4x great-grandparents.)

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Tombstone Tuesday: Francois Pierre and Marie Celestine Bulcher

1/8/2013

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Holy Family Cemetery, Darke Co, Ohio

This is the headstone of my husband's 4x great-grandparents, Francois Pierre Bulcher and Mary Celestine (Voisinet) Bulcher. They were born and married in the small French village of Evette, which is currently situated in the Territoire de Belfort and located not far from France's eastern borders with both Switerland and Germany.

They came to America through New York as a young married couple in 1847 with a baby daughter named Marie Rose (Mary Rosa), who is my husband's 3x great-grandmother. They entered the country under the surname of "Burtechert." Their journey from France to Western Ohio is chronicled in a biographical sketch of one of their sons, Joseph John Bulcher, which was published in A Biographical History of Darke County, Ohio.

"It was a long and tedious voyage from Havre to New York, and by canal they proceeded to Buffalo, by lake to Toledo, and by canal to Berlin*, Ohio, where they arrived in the woods. By ox team they came to Wayne township, Darke county, and the father (Francois) pruchased forty acres of land just over the line in Shelby county, for which he paid three dollars per acre."

*This town of Berlin is now known as Ft. Loramie.

According to U.S. census data, the family lived on this land for about twelve years before moving to Patterson Township in Darke County. Francis and Mary Celestine lived here until they both died in 1907. They were married for sixty years and had twelve children together.

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Foto Friday: Julius and Mary Rosa (Bulcher) Magoto

11/9/2012

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Jules Francois ('Julius') Magoto and Mary Rosa Bulcher are the great-great-great-grandparents of my husband on his dad's side of the family. Julius was born in 1835 in the French town of Hannonville-sous-les-Côtes, which is in the Lorraine region of northeast France. He came to America with his parents, Christopher Magottaux and Marie Catherine Humbert, in 1852. In the 1860 U.S. Census, the family is listed as living in Patterson Township in Darke County, Ohio. (Julius is not listed as he had already gotten married.)

Mary Rosa was born in 1846 in the French town of Belfort, which is located in the Franche-Comté region of northeast France. She came to America as an infant in 1847 with her parents, Francois Pierre Burtechert (or Burtecher) and Marie Celestine Voisinet. In the 1850 U.S. Census, they are living as farmers in Loramie Township (Shelby County), Ohio.

Julius and Mary Rosa were married September 14, 1869 in Frenchtown (Darke Co.), Ohio. It was the second marriage for Julius, as his first wife, Christine Berge, died in 1868 when she was only 28 years old. Julius and Mary Rosa had seven children who lived into adulthood and many more grandchildren.

It was quite common for French immigrants who settled in western Ohio to change the spellings and/or pronunciations of their surnames soon after arriving in America. Sometimes the change was intentional, but quite often it came about as a result of inaccurate transcriptions of the name on official documents, such as land deeds, marriage and birth records, or census schedules.

Before I started researching my husband's family tree, I wasn't aware of the French immigrant influence in rural western Ohio. I had known about the settlement of the German immigrants in the Ohio Valley, probably because their influence was more widespread and they arrived in greater numbers than the French. Most of the churches and towns that were founded by French immigrants in western Ohio in the mid-1800s are still around, and even the influence of the language lives on in certain places. There is a town in Shelby County by the name of 'Russia;' however, it is pronounced "roo-shee," which is actually quite similar to the proper pronunciation of 'La Russie,' which means 'Russia' in French. (You can listen to the French pronunciation here.) Interestingly, though, another western Ohio French settlement by the name of 'Versailles' is actually pronounced 'ver-sales', so the original French pronunciation was lost/changed at some point.

©2012, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Wedding Wednesday: Pierre Francois Burtcher and Marie Celestine Voisinet

Census Sunday: The Burtcher/Bulcher Family, 1850

Tombstone Tuesday: Francois Pierre and Marie Celestine Bulcher

Foto Friday: Julius and Mary Rosa (Bulcher) Magoto

Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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