Family Tree Arno Bourggraff
    

Family tree  ArnoBourggraff



The very beginning		Arno 17 Jahre, auf NSU TT Sport
Arno Bourggraff 

On the basin, some day I found an old piece of furniture, it was desk of my great-great grandfather, Franz Bourggraff. He was known under the name "Schulfranz", a teacher during the 19th century. 

I  found a letter as well written by a Bourggraff, who had emigrated to the United States of America. He wrote that himself and his friend, who was also a native of our village, would have found gold of a value of 6000 dollars. Unfortunately, the gold of my relatives had been stolen. The letter has been lost.

Now I became very curious and one day I drove with my moped to the reverend  Eugène Jost at Basbellain and started to scrabble around. Reverend Jost had a record card of every family indicating the birth, the marriage and the death. The oldest book that I was able to consult, a marriage register, daed from 1616. So I could collect my first information concerning the Bourggraff family. The two sheets with the notes taken are still in my possession. 

I always wanted to do genealogical research and I decided to start after my retirement of work.

So, at the age of 60, I concretely started with my research. I found most of the dates at the National Archives of Luxembourg. Those dates are filed and may be seen on request. By these searches I found out that this gold seeker who had written the letter was Joseph Bourggraff, who had emigrated in 1888 to Minesota and of whom each trace had been lost. He was a cousin of my grandfather Joseph Bourggraff. In August 2011, I finally, after nearly 50 years, found the progeny of the gold seeker Joseph Bourggraff. In 2010, I found the names of John Bourgraf and his wife Marie Anne Josephina Jacquemain from Helzingen on an American homepage. So I had the first traces of the Bourggraff’s family emigrants.


Joseph Bourgraf und seine Familie 

This John (Jean) was a descendant of Mathias Bourggraff, who, after his marriage, lived in Helzingen, and migrated afterwards to the new world. After new searches, I found, on Facebook, the descendants of John Bourggraff. Therefore I specially had the help of Lynda Bourggraff Bokker from South Dakota. After many mails and telephone calls, she sent me a complete genealogical tree of the descendants of John Bourggraf. She also went to the Immigration Center of Minnesota (Mower Country Historical Society Austin). That’s where one was looking now for Joseph Bourggraff. According to the specifications I collected from the National Archives, the trace lead to Okio. Joseph Bourgraf (the name had been abbreviated) took the American nationality on Oktober 1893 and got married to Anna Reichwein in June 1896. In 1902, Joseph came once more back to Hautbellain to see his family. He sent two postcards home, with the stamp of Troisvierges near Hautbellain, making proof. My last doubts were taken away when I got a death notification from Gary Bourgraf  (the descendant of Joseph) from Ohio. I was really surprised to get a death notification of my great-grandfather Michel Bourggraff. He was the uncle of Joseph Bourgraf.

I have invested a lot of time in these searches and found a many interesting events of the family, which I have written down in a chronicle. A reprint, respectively a supplement to the existing chronicle is planned and will be ready for the next meeting of the genealogical tree in 2014.

Since I have spent a considerable amount of time with investigations about the Bourggraff family and have had many very interesting encounters. I am collegial all this in a family chronicle. Most of the family data of my ancestors was provided by the national archive of Luxembourg. I have filed them and they are available if anyone is interested. For even further information I will provide a family chronicle, which I am still working at right now.

Since investigating about my family, I discovered that I am part of a big family clan. I am looking forward to meeting and getting to kno all living family members. As a Christian I have started to pray for them each day, and I am also closing in the late members in my prayers.

Arno Bourggraff

Arno 60 +, auf NSU TT Sport

Arno Bourggraff at age 60
Arno Bourggraff - Bornstrasse 2 - D-54668 Ferschweiler - Telefon 06523/933584 - Email  agbj316@yahoo.de