There is a exceptionally high number of priests who have emerged from this house.The chronicle of the village    Trotten tells about them: Johann Michel Burggraff became chaplain in Dahl in 1759 where he read early mass from 1761 till 1767. On 20^th February 1775 he was appointed pastor of the Blasiuschurch in Berlé (today´s Belgium) where he died on 5^th  March 1785.

1. Johann Michel´s nephew Nikolaus Burggraff was registered as a bachelor at the faculty of arts in Trier (Germany) in 1747. He received the ordination from his father (!) in the presence of the court of justice in Hoffelt (Lux) in April 1751.
2. Another Nikolaus Burggraff, son of Johann and Maria Catharina Burggraff-Henz studied in Luxemburg and received his ordination by the court in Trotten (Lux) on 5^th January 1758. A Nikolaus Burggraff was vicar in Stolzemburg (Lux) in 1771.
3. Michel Burggraff was a further son of Johann Burggarff-Henz. His father was juror at the court in Trotten. Michel was born on 16^th May 1747. He studied in Trier and was ordained priest on 3^rd June 1772. Johann Burggraff-Henz was Nikolaus Bourggraff-Cramp´s brother, whose sons Michel and Johann-Peter married to Oberbesslingen (Lux).
4. There was another priest from Trotten, Leonardus Burggraff. He was Johann Gregor Burggraff´s of the house “Burkessonntag” and his wife´s Anna Margaretha´s son and was baptized on 15th April 1741. He was ordained priest in Trier on 1^st June 1765. He was chaplain at the castle of Wiltz (Lux) from 1765 to 1783. On 27^th Mrach 1783 he became pastor in Eschweiler/Wiltz (Lux) where he died on 14^th April 1817.
5. Vinzenz Burggraff, a son of Johannes Bourggraff-Burkes, was born on 9^th June 1744. He studied in Trier where he was ordained priest on 6^th March 1773. He worked in Holzem in the parish Manderfeld (today´s Belgium). During the French Revolution he lived in Trotten where he read early mass. He died there on 21^st September 1823.
6. Nikolaus, a cousin or brother of Vinzenz, was baptized on 24^th November 1758. His godfather Nikolaus Burggraff was priest in Trotten. In 1774 he was curate in Brandscheid Bleialf (today´s Germany).He died in July 1793. He appointed his cousin or brother Vinzenz as his universal heir. The will was co-signed by the priests of Bleialf and Manderscheid.
7. Michel or Johann Michel Bourggraff, a son of Michel Bourggraff-Connart, was born in Oberbesslingen on 21^st July 1778 and ordained in Cologne (Germany) on 12^th June 1802. He died at the early age of 24 on 15^th Ferbruary 1803. In a grave chapel in Oberbesslingen there is a gravestone with the signs of the priest, chalice and candelabra, and the name Michael Burgrave written on it. This is very probably the priest Michael Bourggraff.The register of Pastor Eugen Jost reports about  another son of Michel Bourggraff-Connart. Accordingly to that Paul was born on 13^th March 1776 and ordained priest on 19^th November 1790. He as well died when he was only 29 years old. Those two brothers lived during the French Revolution, a very difficult time for the clergy.

There are probably no more priests in the Bourggraff´s family until the 20^th century.

9. Balthasar, called Balthes, a son of Nikolaus Bourggraff (a great-grandson of Michael Bourggraff-Connart) and Odile Fis, was born in Oberbesslingen on 19^th October 1904. His godfather, his mother´s brother, was the priest Balthasar Fis. In his case it was as for many religious professions: a godfather who was a priest led the godchild the way to the priesthood.

An exception was Pierre Bourggraff who came from the house Hens in Trotten and whose godfather was Petrus Hironymus Valentiny, priest in Oberbesslingen. Pastor Valentiny led the so called Besslinger Akademie (a school for up to 60 children). Even if his godfather financed Pierre´s studies, he didn´t become a priest. Pierre Bourggraff was the first Luxemburgish Professor at the University of Liège (Belgium).

See also: Professor Pierre Burggraff

In the USA,there were two priests. Aloysius and Alvin Burggraff

Aloysius is the son from Henry Burggraff. He is the uncle from Alvin.

Alvin is Henry and Mary’s grandson, and the son of Richard and Anna Burggraff

   Father Aloysius Burggraff, was born in Royalton, Minnesota, on July 28, 1898. His grandfather was Jean Bourgraff from Helzingen Luxemburg. Aloysius was an enginee-ring student at the University of Minnesota when the U.S. entered World War I. He promptly joined the U.S. Army Chemical Engineers for the duration.After the war he returned to the U of M and completed his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering in 1920. That same year he entered the Paulist novitiate. He was professed on September 15, 1926 and ordained a priest on June 9, 1927.Immediately after ordination he was appointed the first superior of the new Juniorate in Baltimore, teaching science at the Sulpician St. Charles College as well. After brief assignments as parish assistant and missionary in Minneapolis and Washington he returned to St. Paul's College as both teacher and rector while earning his PhD in Chemistry at Catholic University.  In 1944 Fr. Burggraff became pastor of St. Austin's parish in Austin, Texas, but three years later was transferred to New York City to work at the Information Center at St. Paul the Apostle parish there.By 1952 he was back in Baltimore and director of the Information Center in that city. During this period he worked at the Center, wrote a column for The Baltimore Catholic Review and, in 1960, published his popular "Handbook for New Catholics." By the mid-1960's his health began a steady decline and, when the Information Center moved to a new location in early 1965, he resigned his position and moved to Washington to teach Ethics at St. Paul's College. In May of 1966 he suffered a fatal heart attack. He went away May 29, 1966, 67 years old at the time of his death and did not quite reach his 40th Anniversary of Ordination. He is buried in Baltimore.

See Father Alvin Burggraff http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=94007910

                                                      Petrus, Peter or Pierre was born on 28^th July 1803 as the second child of the married coupleNikolaus Bourggraff and Anna Valentini in Trotten (Luxembourg).His great-grandfather Joannis Bourggraff is Nikolaus Bourggraff-Kramp´s brother.Peter was able to read when he was only 9 years old and without having visited a school. He lived at his maternal godfather´s house, Chaplain Valentini in Oberbesslingen from 1810. The chaplain has founded a private school, the Besslinger academy, where he taught up to 60 pupils. Peter certainly came to know his distant relatives, who had married into Oberbesslingen in the 1770ies, they were descendants of Michel and Johannes Peter Bourggraff, whose father Nikolaus was originally from Trotten.

The origins of the name “Burggraf”:Original article at the German language edition of the free encyclopaedia Wikipedia.The burggrave (lat. praefectus, castelanus or burggravius) was a medieval feudal office. The domain of a burggrave was called burggraviat (lat. prefectura). The burggraves belonged to the landowning lesser nobility (MB disagree: not necessarily as they could also be unfree ministerialis or knights) and on occasion adopted their office’s designation as part of their name.

The term burggrave covers a number of different aspects. Burggraves could either be in service to a king, to a bishop or to another lord. Their duties could be administrative, military and/or jurisdictional. Some burggraves only had military command over a castle and their role was limited to its maintenance and defence. Others on the other hand managed to expand their lordship over a larger territory.The first mention of a burggrave in the Holy Roman Empire was or Ratisbon (ger. Regensburg). In the first half of the 11^th century, Arnold of Saint Emmeran cites a certain Burchard as ‘prefectus Rati-sbonensis’. The foundation of this burggraviat took place sometime between 953 and 972, maybe around the new year of 961. After Burchard, as of ca. 980 the burggraves of Ratisbon belonged to the House of Babo (ger. Babonen).