My name is Julie Goucher and I began researching my family history in 1986. The surname of Butcher sits within my maternal family which predominately features the South Eastern England counties of Surrey (my home County), Sussex and Hampshire. This study began in the late 1980's but was only registered in 2016!

Currently I am focusing on processing material from the Surrey and Sussex areas of England, before spreading outwards to the rest of the UK then heading overseas. I do though, already have substantial material that relates to my own Butcher family, and material from Australia and Canada for my specific lines.

The Butcher study is a continuing work in progress and welcomes contact from those interested in the surname and any additions to the study.

Butchers is currently the only registered variant.

There are a number of historical occurrences of the surname Butcher(s) below are just a few:

• Samuel "Sam" John Butcher - American artist well known for his "Precious Moments" artwork
• Terry Butcher - Professional English footballer & manager
• Matthew Butcher - Professional English footballer
• Reginald Butcher (1916-2000) - Professional English footballer
• John Butcher, 1st Baron Danesfort QC, (1853-1935) - British barrister and MP 
• Rosemary Katharine Butcher (1947-2016) - choreographer and teacher 
• Jim Butcher - American author well known for his fantasy series, The Dresden Files amongst others
• Tim Butcher - Author, journalist, adventurer & public speaker

   

I am very interested in seeing how the distribution of the surname appears across a variety of Countries. The map below from Surname Profiler shows the distribution of the surname BUTCHER across the globe, with an interesting twist when compared to the same map for the surname Butchers which is the only registered variant.

The map below from Surname Profiler showing the distribution for the surname of BUTCHERS, suggesting that as migration happened, the name, for a variety of reasons lost the "S" and the only countries which appear to a presence of the name in full is the UK and New Zealand.

The study holds the following:

• Birth and Baptisms
• Banns and Marriages
• Deaths and Burials
• Probate and Wills
• Obituaries
• Newspaper Articles
• Monumental Inscriptions
• Military Records
• Trade Directories
• Census Material
• Photographic Material
• Biographies
• Family Groups
• Miscellaneous Records
• Passenger Lists
• Bibliography
• Coat of Arms

The study is World Wide.

There is no DNA project associated with this One-Name Study, but there is a BOUCHER DNA project established at FTDNA. You can join that project, as I have done, HERE.

The Boucher Project seems to have been established initially to see if there were genetic links between the Boucher and Butcher families in Virginia, United States during the 18th Century, although others have since joined the project.

Other surnames included in the Boucher DNA Project are Bouscher, Boutcher, Bushey, Butcher.

Boucher DNA Project at FTDNA 

Butcher Profile updated 1 April 2018