BFA members planning to attend the reunion in Portland, Maine June 11-14 should make reservations directly with the Best Western Merry Manor, if my own experience is any indication.

I first attempted to make reservations through the toll-free number given in the Bunker Banner, and the best room rate I could get mentioning the BFA was $99 a night because of my AARP membership. When I became a bit more insistent that the BFA had a $69/night rate, the reservation clerk just she had no information about that and that I would have to speak with the hotel directly to make reservations at that rate.

I immediately called the Best Western Merry Manor hotel at 207-774-6151 and got the $69 quoted rate confirmed and a guaranteed reservation within 2 minutes. As Gil Bunker, BFA President, noted in the most recent Bunker Banner, to get this rate, you should mention the BFA by name, and register by May 30. Our host site has high speed wireless internet through the grounds and free parking. Check in time is 3 p.m.

The BFA’s annual business meeting will be at 1 p.m., Saturday, June 14, in the hotel.

What is the Bunker Family Association’s ID numbering system?

As a surname society, the BFA was organized to compile and preserve the Bunker lineage, back in 1913. Originally, membership was open only to descendants from the three main branches from Charlestown (Bunker Hill), Nantucket and Dover, New Hampshire. The bylaws were changed several times, the latest opens membership to all Bunker, or anyone related to a Bunker. Several members trace their connection back over 8-10 generations before they find an ancestor named “Bunker,” so just about everybody is eligible.

However, we still remain a surname society and our primary function is to record Bunkers. The numbering system set up ages ago, reflects this ideal. As there were three main Bunkers who came to the colonies in the mid-1600s, the organizers of the BFA assumed all Bunker were related to them, thus the first George of Nantucket became N1; the first George of Charlestown became C1 and James of Dover became D1. All the children, grandchildren, great grandchildren etc, were numbered in the order of their birth. All children received their father’s ID # plus their birth order number. Thus D1-III is the third child of D1. If and when a son married and had children he would receive a new number, different than his father’s. When a daughter married, she still carried her father’s # and her spousal information was added to the file. We did not record the children of these marriages, because we would then stop being a surname society. In certain instances female Bunkers were given separate #s, i.e. one married, had children, then divorced, and reverted back to her maiden name of Bunker, legally changing her and the children’s names. Adoptions and some intermarriages of cousins necessitated different #s for clarity. Today we have many Bunkers not directly descended from these main branches and these have U or unconnected #s.

If you receive a number and it is your great great-grandmother’s #, it is because she is your closet ancestor with the Bunker name. Example: your gr gr grandmother Bunker marries Smith. She would retain her father’s ID# plus her birth order #, thus if you are descended from Smith, your # is identical to your great great-grandmother.

A few years ago, our historian thought it would be nice to add the lineage of all the female Bunkers, however that task remains beyond the scope of a surname society function. We are collecting information on the female Bunkers, making footnotes of the files and storing the hardcopies for future researchers reference material.

This page was intended to solve the puzzle of the BFA numbering system. If you have questions, please contact the BFA President, Gil Bunker.

Bunker Hill was the site of the first of the famous battles of the Revolutionary War. No history of the Bunker family would be complete without mention of this battle, which occurred on June 17, 1775. This battle was a great significance to the American colonists but also recorded the Bunker name for posterity all over the eastern part of the country.

To the best of our current knowledge, no Bunker took part in the battle on either side, but there were no formal American regiments and no rosters of soldiers, only scattered records pieced together from individual sources. In any event, George Bunker gave the hill its name, as he and his descendants owned its land many years before the battle. A 1931 typed volume of Bunker genealogy states: “The land assigned to George Bunker extended from Main Street in the south, over the hill back of it to the north to Mystic River. One lost (pasture land) ran over the summit of Bunker Hill, and hence this name, given by early and common consent to two connected ridges of elevated ground in the peninsula.”

George and his descendants had left Charlestown several years before the battle. The American colonists originally expected to fortify Bunker Hill and actually started work, when it was decided to move forward and down to Breed’s Hill. There were 11 English light infantry companies in the attacking army. During the battle the city of Charlestown was destroyed by cannon fire from British war ships supporting their troops.

Bunker Hill Flag

According to Henry Bunker III, at least two versions of the flag used by the American patriots in the battle of Bunker Hill are depicted in paintings made long after the battle. Henry Bunker’s conclusion was that possibly both were actually used. One version, used in New England before 1737, had a blue field with a white union quartered by a red cross. This flag, with the addition of a green pine tree in the upper inner quarter of the union, was carried at the battle of Bunker Hill as depicted in early paintings. More recent flag research states the flag was red, with the New Englander’s pine tree on a white cannon. The cross of St. George in use on earlier New England flags was omitted as Americans took up arms against the British (see Bunker Family History, p. 99}.

Bunker Hill Monument

The Bunker Hill monument on Breed’s Hill is still an important part of the Boston skyline. The Marquis de Lafayette laid the cornerstone in 1825 for the 220-foot tall structure of granite, quarried at Quincy, Massachusetts. The dressed stones were transported on our country’s first railroad, constructed specifically for that purpose, from the quarry to barges on the Neponset River for transfer to Charlestown.

The above information is summarized from Henry L. Bunker III’s 1984 Bunker Family History, pp. 69-70, 72, and 99-100.

Bedfordshire is a little west and north of London, and Bunker family genealogist Henry L. Bunker III believed that early Bunker families in the Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Hertfordshire counties should be considered together in a general way. It appeared to him there had been considerable movement among these counties during the 16th and 17th centuries. Travel distances involved among the many towns in this area were on the order of five to 10 miles.

Two Bunkers are recorded in the early 1500s: Roger, in Tingrith, whose will was recorded in 1515, and John of Pottsgrove, whose will was recorded in 1540. Henry Bunker believed that if these men were related, it would seem probable that John was a son of an unrecorded brother of Roger. Pottsgrove is only four miles from Tingrith.

Roger’s family is well documented through wills and parish records, and this family supplied the two Georges who pioneered the Charlestown and Topsfield-Nantucket branches in New England. Based on current information, it has been concluded these two Georges were first cousins.

The above information is summarized from Henry L. Bunker III’s 1984 Bunker Family History, p. 45.

It’s time to register for the BFA’s 95th Annual Bunker Reunion to be held Portland, Maine June 11-14, 2008. According to BFA President Gil Bunker, Portland, especially the Merry Manor Inn, has rolled out the red carpet. “I am very confident this gala will be one of the best convocations of Bunker cousins. From all indications, Portland is a destination we may want to visit again. The advance response has been gratifying, even before the “official” reservation form is in your hands.”

The schedule calls for us to visit the Bunker Garrison site (a short trip into New Hampshire) and its nearby graveyard of Dover ancestors. It offers a pleasant trip into our heritage, and a quiet place to ponder the hardships of our forebears more than 300 years ago. In 1960, Anna Tenney of Newport, New Hampshire located the site and began its 11-year restoration. Eleven of our earliest pioneers (James 1 family) were buried in unmarked graves, lest the Indians desecrate their remains. Eight rough fieldstones marked additional graves of our ancestors, although the markers mysteriously increased to 15 by 1993. We are fairly certain about these departed cousins. White, marble engraved slabs identify the final 15 interments in the 1800s (plot list and diagrams will be distributed).

The Madbury graveyard contains the graves of Zachariah (D-11) and 30 family members. Fieldstones mark their final resting-place, only a few stones contain initials and/or dates. Special thanks go to Laurel Bunker, her sister and brother-in-law, Dorothy and Bob May, for helping with the discovery in 1986 and the restoration.

For those not up to a 10- or 12-hour Friday coach trip to Great Cranberry Island, an alternative guided excursion to local attractions will be provided by Steve Bunker, who owns and operates a nautical shop in Portland. However, the term nautical is not quite appropriate for his China Sea Marine Trading Co. For sure you can purchase a ship’s wheel or carved wooden mermaid, and in case you need to prevent sickness, Steve may provide an African fetish for your medicine cabinet. If it can ward off evil, as is claimed, you probably won’t need to worry about that headhunter’s knife. Rather then part with scarce, maritime “tools of the trade” to be hung on a forgotten wall, Steve will save the antique implements for working seamen. And you probably can’t buy a wood plane, unless you’re going to use it in the workshop. Steve traces his ancestors back to the Cranberry Isles and claims he personally knows “Ensign Ben.” We’ll just have to wait and see about that yarn, but as a tour guide, you’re in for an unusual day.

The Cranberry museum will be open and we’ll certainly pay respects at the graves of our formidable ancestors. Hopefully, the island Bunkers will join us during the walk-about. “Tinker” Bunker (D-1106) of SW Harbor will join the Cranberry tour and provide a personal glimpse into island life.

The host site is:

Best Western Merry Manor, So. Portland, ME
700 Main Street, South Portland, ME 04016
1-800-528-1234 or visit the web site www.merrymanorinn.com
Room rates, $69.00 + 7% tax – Mention BFA by name
Hotel Reservation deadline – May 30, 2008

Reunion Calendar

Wednesday, June 11, 2008 – Check-in: 3 p.m.
Hospitality Room, Greeting & Conviviality 3 p.m.
Hang your relatives on the clothesline exhibit – Tables available for displays, door prizes, BFA library, archives, etc.

Thursday, June 12, 2008
Dover, New Hampshire Tour (approx. 62 miles one-way) 1-7 p.m.
Charter coach tour to Bunker Garrison site and Graveyard; visit Madbury graveyard; tour Durham Museum; Dinner, on own, at Newicks, Dover Point, New Hampshire (seafood dining at its best).
Hospitality Room 7 p.m.

Friday, June 13, 2008
Great Cranberry Island, (approx. 175 miles one-way) 6 a.m. – 6 p.m. Coach service from hotel to Northeast Harbor,
Beal & Bunker ferry to Great Cranberry Island

or Alternate Local Guided Tour

Fifth Maine Regiment Museum, Peaks Island; Eastern Promenade; Portland Head Lighthouse; Marine Observatory and cemetery with War of 1812 veterans. Lunch on island – Tour itinerary may vary – Times to be announced.
Hospitality Room 7 p.m.

Saturday, June 14, 2008 – Flag Day
Group Photo Session 6 p.m.
Banquet w/cash bar 6:30 p.m.
Choice of: Roast Beef, Chicken Cordon Blue, Seafood Newburg includes fresh baked rolls & butter, Chef’s choice of potato or rice, veggie du jour, salads, coffee, assorted tea, coffee, desert.
Entertainment by Ensign Ben 8:30 p.m. +/-
Raffle 9 p.m. +/-
Hospitality Room 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. & 10 p.m. +/-

Sunday, June 15, 2008 – Father’s Day
Farewell breakfast on own – Checkout: noon

Our newest project (just completed) is a compact disc on Devon Bunkers. The Devon Bunkers CD includes information on the descendants of James Bunker of Dover, New Hampshire; William Bunker and Ann Forrester of New Castle, Delaware; Benjamin Bunker and Betsey Daniels of New London, New Hampshire; and Thomas Bunker and Alice Pertie of Rattery. The CD (now available) also includes Devon, England Parish Records, maps and nearly 100 pictures. In addition, we have added the records of military service for Bunkers from all the many branches of the family.

Labeled with a depiction of the Bunker Garrison and packaged in a slim jewel box, the CD is an electronic version of more than 1,300 written pages including indexes. The CD is $22.50, including shipping. Send check or money order to Bette Bunker Richards, 1655 W. Ajo #399, Tucson, AZ 85713. For more information, send email to: betterichs@earthlink.net. Please note that not all Devon descendants have been included, but those entered in the BFA data base to date. Bette Bunker Richards has spent the past five years updating the data base to include as much as possible about the descendants, especially about the descendants of female Bunkers. If there are additions that should be included, please provide those to Bette.