This study project started with a request by mother to document the ancestry of four lines of my direct family (Bourgeois/Doran, Lacelle/Depratto). One day, after several months of trying to break through a brick wall on my Bourgeois ancestry, I discovered documents that pointed to my Acadian roots and Jacques Jacob Bourgeois an Acadian surgeon, farmer, merchant and coloniser, who arrived at Port Royal, now Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, on the St-François from La Rochelle, France in on the 7th of May 1641.

That discovery generated a 25-year project with the goal of trying to gather, read and record all of the information I could about the Acadians, and the Bourgeois’ of Acadian descent in order to determine how they had been dispersed over time.

Given the fact that there were multiple lines of Bourgeois' in my target research area (i.e., North America) I discovered that the easiest way to find the Bourgeois’ of Acadian Descent was to document all the Bourgeois' and allocate them to the different Bourgeois lines turning my research into a one name study of the Bourgeois name.

To date I have documented over 55,000 Bourgeois' across North America, with the goal of linking them back to their European origins.

BOURJEOIS, BUSHWA, BUSHWAY, BUSHWARE, BURGESS, BLAISE, BOSS, BOURGEOIS Dit FOREMAN

Given the French nature of the name it was sometimes misunderstood, misspelled, or abandoned by its holders because of problems associated with using the name in English Canada and the United States. The name holders, probably being illiterate, most of these variations arose from the fact the name holder was never able to make the appropriate corrections, so the name variants and/or deviants were passed on to future generations.

So the “Bushw*” persist today due to a long-standing misunderstanding due to pronunciation and misspelling. This branch of the name presently contains some 450 members and is growing.

The name "Burgess" is a germanique variant of Bourgeois that has also been given to some Bourgeois' in anglophone environments. Although seen less frequently in this study, the holders of this surname continue to use the Burgess variant/deviant today.

The names “Blaise” is a surname of convenience that was passed on to future generations. The surname “Blaise” was the given name of the head of the line, named “Blaise Bourgeois”. When he and his family moved to the United States, the children used or started to use the Acadian tradition of identifying themselves in public as “Given name fils de Blaise” (Fils de = Son of), which became understood in their English communities to mean “Given name Blaise”.  The priest then started using the surname in religious acts thus perpetuating the name forward. This branch of the tree presently contains some 480 members and is growing.

The surnames "Boss" and "Dit Foreman" or "Foreman" are deviant names of convenience given to and adopted by the holders based on their occupation. As with the previous discussed variant these deviants arose in anglophone communities unable to pronounce the surname, therefore "Given name Bourgeois" became "Given name the Boss" and "Given name the Foreman" which was then truncated "Given name Boss" and "Given name Foreman". Here to priest started to use the deviant name in religious acts perpetuating the name forward.

While both the “Bushw*” and “Blaise” groups realize the origins of their name, both continue to use the transformed variant. The "Burgess", "Boss" and "Foreman" deviants, although less frequent, also continue to be used by descendants of those branches.

All of these variants and deviants coincide with in the industrial revolution as french immigrants from Canada and Europe headed to the United State.

Recorded in many forms including Bourges, Bourgaize, Bourgeois (France & North America), Burgess, Burges and Burgis (England and Scotland), Borghese, Borgesio and Burgisi (Italy), and others, this surname is of pre 8th century Old French origins.

It derives from the word "burgeis", meaning inhabitant and freeman of a fortified town, one which could apply municipal rates, taxes, and duties.

A “burgeis” generally had tenure of land or buildings from a landlord by "burgage", which involved the payment of a fixed money rent. In Scotland, the position of burgess required not only the making of payments, but to be available to take part in guarding the town.

In old French “Bourg” was used when speaking of town or a village. A “bourgeois” was generally used to identify a person that lived in or had a permit to live a town or village.  Later “bourgeois” became a term associated with a landowner or someone that was wealthy or had a position in society. It is used pejoratively when speaking of a “Bourgeois society” or when being accused of being a “Bourgeois”.

As with Scotland, with privilege came duty and the “bourgeois” were subject to conscription for the guarding of the town, county or country as required.

The surname is one of the earliest recorded anywhere in the world.

The earliest recordings are from England which was the first to adopt both hereditary surnames and the necessary registers in which to record them.  It is said that Geoffery Burgeis is the first known spelling of the name in the Winton Rolls of Hampshire, England, in 1115.

The surname would have arrived in England from Normandy with the invasion of William the Conqueror and the French rule.

Registers recording names in France came later when the priest were required to document all births, marriages, and deaths, and transmit copies of said registers to the state on a yearly basis.

In Italy, the recording of hereditary surnames did not appear until the 19th century in most areas.

Over the centuries, the surname in every country has continued to change (i.e., mutate and morph), often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling or deviants.

According to Wikipedia;

As of 2014, 49.6% of all known bearers of the surname Bourgeois were residents of France (frequency 1:1,819), 24.8% of the United States (1:19,760), 15.8% of Canada (1:3,157), 5.4% of Belgium (1:2,892) and 1.5% of Switzerland (1:7,254).

In France, the frequency of the surname was higher than national average (1:1,819) in the following regions:^[1]

• 1. Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (1:548)
• 2. Guadeloupe (1:758)
• 3. Saint Pierre and Miquelon (1:914)
• 4. Centre-Val de Loire (1:1,127)
• 5. Hauts-de-France (1:1,238)
• 6. Grand Est (1:1,575)
• 7. Île-de-France (1:1,718)
• 8. Normandy (1:1,802)

A FamilytreeDNA study for the "Bourgeois" name has been created by Jason Bourgeois which presently contains 52 members.

See Bourgeois - Overview | FamilyTreeDNA

The Histoire-de-Bourgeois/The-Bourgeois-Story website contains a subset of Jason's Bourgeois study.

See DNA Tests: Histoire-de-Bourgeois

While small by comparison the Histoire-de-Bourgeois/The-Bourgeois-Story study has already identified two unique haplogroups. R-M269 with a Most Distance Ancestor (MDA) being Jacques (Jacob) Bourgeois married to Jeanne Trahan, ancestor of all the Bourgeois’ of Acadian descent and I-M253 with a MDA being Jean Bourgeois married (1) to Angéliques Poirrier and married (2) to Rosalie Maillet.  Jean is the ancestor of all the Bourgeois’ originating from Chéticamp, Nova Scotia.

Both individuals are known to have arrived in North America from France, but their ancestry has yet to be determined.

Individuals with the Bourgeois name or a variant thereof having done a Y-DNA test are invited to provide me their result (Haplogroup, Marker values and Most Distant Relative and your lineage ending with your MDA).

Those wishing to participate in the study and who do not yet have results from a Y-DNA can register with the Bourgeois Project on FamilytreeDNA. Once you receive you result you can then send me a copy of the pertinent data as described above.