Busam Genealogy

This web site contains information to help those interested in Busam genealogy.  Here is a list of topics:

Busam Immigrants to the United States, pre-1900
Descendents of Josef Busam (b. 1723, Nussbach (Nußbach, Baden, Germany)) (courtesy of Beverly Zanon)
Descendents of another Joseph Busam (b. perhaps around 1760, Nussbach) (courtesy of Beverly Zanon)
Family Origins
Origin of name and pronunciation
Updating Information
Book I found useful
Additional Busam Immigrant Information

Page last updated 16-Jan-2005.

Busam Immigrants to the United States, pre-1900

This page contains a list of all known Busam Immigrants to the United States before 1900.  Along with each name is the person's birth, marriage, and death information - at least as much as is known.  For families that immigrated together, only one main entry is listed.  When available, contact information to descendents) is provided.

Being interested in genealogy and as owner of the busam.com domain name, I will keep this web page current.  Hopefully, it can be a starting place for descendents of Busam immigrants who want to trace their history.  See the section on "Updating Information" for how to send me information for this page.  Because of privacy concerns, this page only lists contact information for persons that have given me permission to list them.  Finally, the information contained herein is the best I have available but may contain errors.

Here is a list of Busam Emigrants (Auswanderers) from the Generallandesarchiv in Karlsruhe, Baden, Germany.  This list was kindly provided by Beverly Zanon.  For all these emigrants, except one noted in the table, the destination was Nordamerika.  Also, all were marked with OG between the city and the year, except for two that had RA (noted in the table).  The meaning of the OG and RA codes is not known to me.  I have seen microfilm of a couple of handwritten Auswanderer lists from the Karlsruhe archives (some of which are below on this page) and unfortunately they don't give any information beyond that contained in the following table.  (Following table added 8-Feb-2004)

Family Origins

The area around Oberkirch, Baden, Germany is loaded with Busams.  See my notes on my trips to the Oberkirch area to find my ancestor's origin (http://www.busam.com/MyBusamAncestors).  There are also a number of Busams from Baden-Baden which is just a little north of the Oberkirch area.  By the way, Oberkirch is just across the Rhine river from Strassbourg, France.  There are reports of Busams having emigrated from the Alsace area of France, but the reports I have are only from verbal history and I haven't heard of any records substantiating these reports.

An April 2002 report from another researcher says "You bet there are Busam's in the Offenburg area!!!  I have been going through the church records for Weingarten Cath. Church, and the Busam's were there for at least two hundred years, living in Rammersweier, Zell, Weierbach, and Fessenbach.  It is a real drag going through those church records because of the German script and the use of Latin, but you sorta get used to it."

Origin of name and pronunciation

When I was visiting my great-grandfather's birthplace and family home (still in the Busam family), I asked Anton Busam, the keeper of the family tree, the origin of the name Busam.  He said it was an ancient name and didn't know its origin.  I told him that several people had suggested to me that it might be French in origin but he dismissed that idea.  In Nussbach, they pronounce the name very much like boo-zam.  My family (and several others who have written me) pronounce it bosom.

In September 1998, I received an email:  "My name is Mathias Busam and I am from Germany. ...  And we of course pronounce it the same way like they do [refer to Nussbach pronunciation, above].   We Busams from Zell-Weierbach did research a lot as well but we found out the origin name came from SOUTH TIROL in the 16th century, nowadays a part of Italy, we found this in old catholic church books, at least that's what I have heard years ago while talking to a cousin who did the family research. I don't think we Busams have French roots, really."

Click here to see a map of the Oberkirch/Nussbach area (113kb).

Click here to see some pictures from Oberkirch (78kb).

Updating Information

Please mail or (if possible) email updated information to:

Vincent A. Busam
15754 Adams Ridge
Los Gatos, CA 95033

email:

Please try to put your information in the same format as seen in the above table (check especially the entry for Bernhard Busam), it will save me time updating the table, especially if I can just cut-and-paste from an email.  Please provide me with your contact information, including your email address and web page, if you have one.

I will not put your contact information on the web if you ask me not to. If you don't want your name on the web as a contact, please additionally let me know if you don't want me to give your name out to individuals that make specific requests about your ancestor or his family.  I will respect your privacy.

I will also put information you send me (with your permission) on the web, if it is in computer readable format, e.g. an email attachment or PC diskette.  (If you can put it in HTML page format, it will make things much easier for me.)  I will link it off your ancestor's information above, as I did for my information.  This will be a great way for genealogical information about Busam Immigrants and their decendents to be readily available to researchers.

Book I found useful

If I can you can-decipher Germanic Records by Edna M. Bentz
84 pages...8 1/2 x 11..spiral bound. Contains samples of German and Danish   script...with many examples of how it is actually written. Many examples of words as they appear in church records. A glossary of illnesses, occupations. A timeline with space to enter your ancestors. $16.50 plus 3.50 pstge & pkg. Add 1.28 sales tax if you are in California.
Edna M. Bentz
13139 Old West Avenue
San Diego, CA 92129-2406
619-484-1708

(Vince's note:  I ran across this book years ago and ordered a copy for myself.   I liked it so much I also bought a couple of other copies for good friends.   If you have access to someone who can read and translate old German records, you might not find this book of much help.  But if you have copies of old German records and are having trouble reading them, the information in this book might be just what you need.  It has pages of samples of various ways the letters of the alphabet were written.  It also has sections of words that are useful to know, such as relationship names, terminology and symbols, common abbreviations, etc.

Here is the name "Ignatz Busam" from the Nussbach church book for an 1841 baptism.  Can you decipher this to be Ignatz Busam?  )

Additional Busam Immigrant Information

From Mike Husman’s genealogy researcher in Karlsruhe:

Busam emigration cases on file:

Joseph Busam, soldier, sneaked off in 1854, probably to America.
Johann Busam, unmarried, sneaked off in 1853.
Johann Busam has emigrated to America before 1853.
Ziriak Busam did not appear to the army in 1815.
Franz Busam, innkeeper, sneaked off to America in 1847.
Joseph Busam, day-labourer, and his family emigrate to North America in 1831.
Anton Busam emigrates to North America in 1852.
Bernhard Busam soldier, is absent in 1846 and 1854.
Franz Michael Busam, b. in 1827, absent soldier in 1849.
Joseph Busam deserted in 1854.
Sales Busam, b. in 1824, absent soldier in 1849.
Mathias Busam, b. in 1824, absend soldier in 1849.
Michael Busam and family emigrate to America in 1854.

Vince Busam’s research from Morman Church Family History Library microfilm:

Auswanderer Index (Emmigrant Index)

FHL Microfilm 1180095 (end of film)

This microfilm contains a typewritten list of names of people that left Germany in the 1800s. I believe these are all legal emmigrants. I didn’t read every entry, but I think I got most of the Busams. The numbers seem to represent the year. "vor" means before. Numbers in parenthesis may be the number of emmigrants. The town names are in italic. Here goes:

page 8 on -

Herzthal* Busam, Bernh vor 70; Busam, Ant (4) vor 69
Hesselbach b/Oberkirch* Busam-Huber, Hel vor 75
Rammersweier Busam, Jos vor 76
Ulm b/Oberkirch* Busam, Franz Jos vor 73

page 118 on -

Butschbach Busam, Jaj 68
Haslach Busam, Joh 53
Herztal* Busam, Bernh 67; Jg 72; Lor (2)54; Stef 79
Lautenbach* Busam, Engelb 60 (could be 50), Jos 54
Oberkirch* Busam, Franz 63, Jg, Leop 53; Ludw 65
                               (one set of notes also shows the following two names, another doesn’t)
                               Christ Jg Leop 49; Luwd 54
Oppenau Busam, Ant 51; leop 91
Ulm b/Oberkirch* Busam, Jos 54
Zusenhofen* Busam, Bernh(?) 64, Jos 72, Seb 54, H. ? (7)65, H (11)51

On an index card earlier on the microfilm was

Urloffen* Busam, Anton 1872

(Sorry if this is cryptic, but I tried to copy it as best I could read it. The microfilm was quite dark. All of the towns whose name I recognize are in the Oberkirch area - I have marked them with an asterisk. Also, some names appear to be duplicated between the two different lists.)

Extracts from Filby’s Series of Books "Germans to America" about the Busam family (from Mike Husman)

22 Jan 1866 Ship "Atalanta" fm Bremen to NY:
     BUSAM, Wilh 28 Shoemaker Baden
          Franziska 58
          Marianne 30
          Theresa 22
          Franziska 20
          Franz 15
          Juliane 4
          Franziska .09

25 Apr 1872 Ship "Helvetia" Havre to London to NY
     BUSAM, Anton 24 laborer Baden

12 Aug 1864 Ship "Frothingham" Havre to NY
     BUSAM, Anton 24 laborer Baden

24 Jan 1857 Ship "Wurtenburg" Havre to N. Orleans
     BUSAM, Bernard 45
          Johann 44
          Sophie 15
          George 14
          Monica 8
          Helena 6

12 Sep 1853 Ship "Elvira Owen" Havre to NY
     BUSAM, Leopold 16 Baden

.. Sep 1865 Ship "Atal…" Havre-London-NY
     BUSAM, Ludwig 18 farmer Baden

15 Aug 1854 Ship "Admiral" Havre to NY
     BUSAM, Joesph 27 farmer Baden
          Cecile 20 Baden

And I (Vince) found my great-grandfather:

31 Jan 1868 Ship "Cella" Havre and London to NY
     BUSSAM, Bernard 25 Farmer Baden (destination New York)
     (His name is Bernhard Busam, the age is correct and from Auswander records he left in 1867, so I am confident this is him.)