BFA Genealogist Bette Richards <betterichs@live.com> sent the following comments to the Bunker e-mail group at rootsweb.com [November 21]:

Sometimes running through Bunker names we find some differences between us and other families.

For instance, the Devon Bunkers have a higher than average number of craftsmen amongst them, carpenters, masons, blacksmiths, shoemakers, etc.

The Nantucket Bunkers have a higher than average number of artists, writers, actors, muscians and entertainers.

What I find interesting about this is that both the English branches of the family seem to have a higher than average number of creative people.  Some of this we learn from our parents of course, but not all of it.  Some of it must be in our genes.

Our family has people of nearly all occupations.  I can’t think of one we have missed, but that is normal when you have several hundred years of known history.  All families have members that have been in all occupations, rich, poor, educated, not educated, prominent, famous and infamous.  But not all families have so many creative people as our familes do.  I find that very interesting.

I am from the Devon branch.  I do many creative things.  No one in my family has been famous at anything but we have numerous people in the building trades, nearly every generation we have people that are in crafts or art of some kind and also musicians and dancers.   I would be miserable if I could not create things and when I am sick or depressed I lose this creative ability and it really bothers me.  I find this interesting and thought you might too.

And of course, not many families have the record of military service that ours does.  Considering that many of our ancestors were Quakers for several generations, that is rather amazing.  In some Bunker families there have been several generations of people that served or are serving in the military. The Devon CD has so many Bunker military people listed and for every one of America’s wars.  The Bedfordshire CD will have an updated version because nearly every month we find new veterans amongst the Bunkers.  At some point we have to stop and publish but {BFA President] Gil [Bunker] keeps working on that and it just keeps growing.  We are beginning to get the WW II veterans more now.  There were a lot of them since virtually every able-bodied male between the ages of 18 and 50 served from America, England, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.  Our databases grow every day.

BFA Genealogist Bette RIchards makes some interesting points in a Nov. 20 message to the Bunker list group at rootsweb.com:

While going through some records I found several instances when more than one child in a family was baptized on the same day. Maybe there were twins or even triplets but it is just as likely that the children were born at different times and all baptized at once.

In other cases I have found records with children born a month apart in the same year. I would have ordinarily imagined this to be some kind of mistake if I had not had a friend who had twins born 2 months apart. Twins are usually born within a few hours of each other but not always.

If you run into these situations it is best to just record the information and not make assumptions. If you are able to find more records that give the age of the children you may be able to determine if they were twins or multiple births but you can’t make that assumption.

Then there are the children whose only date of birth is a year and you have two within one year. That is really easy. My husband had a sister born the same year as he was. One was born in January and the other in November. In case of premature birth, siblings could be less than 9 months apart in age.

If you have a death certificate, gravestone or burial record or proven will that has a date that occurs over 11 months before the birth of a child, it is highly unlikely that the deceased was the parent. Of course, if it was the mother of the child, that would be impossible. But even in that case you may have a baptismal record that has been called a birth record and mom may have died say October 11 and baby have a “birth” date of October 20th or even later. In those cases rather than assuming a different mother, check to see if the record is a baptismal one.

And then there are the fathers who have children with multiple women at the same time or within months of each other. With our early polygamous families there is a lot of that and not all places record the name of both the father and mother.

Record everything, even several dates for the same event and record the source of that information. Even if there is no source, keep the information. There may be an error in some of the records.

George and William are the most popular Bunker names for males. For females it is Elizabeth and Mary. There are numerous cousins born at nearly the same time with the same name and then they have the audicity to marry women with the same name. Genealogists go bald tearing out their hair over these things. Sometimes we get it right and sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we are able to correctly sort and assign families with the same names and similar birthdates and sometimes not. We just keep working on it. Always be open to the fact that you or an earlier researcher has made an error or that the early record keeper made an error. It happens all the time.

The arrival of the Bunker Banner (newsletter of the Bunker Family Association) yesterday prompts a post regarding the memorial bench fund for the 100th anniversary of the BFA.  At the last business meeting in June, the group decided to solicit funds for installing a granite bench at the Bunker graveyard in Durham, New Hampshire.

The graveyard marks the resting place of more than 30 Dover branch descendents of the Bunker family, and is near the site of the Bunker garrison constructed by James Bunker (D-1) .

If you would like to make a contribution for the “Bench Fund” please send to the BFA Treasurer, P.O. Box 337961, Greeley, CO 80633-7961.  The BFA is grateful for your financial support.

The Bunker Family Association’s genealogist, Bette Bunker Richards, sent along an e-mail note to the web site coordinator stating that work is nearly complete on the compilation of descendents of Bedfordshire Bunkers. Bette has been at work on this project since completion of the Dover descendents in 2007.

Although we don’t expect demand for the CDs to be as great, production of the CD is a far more efficient way to share information on the Beds Bunkers than any print medium.

We expect the pricing and other details to be about the same for this CD as the Dover one.  Details will be announced on the web and on the Bunker e-mail list as soon as the CD is ready for delivery.

Our web site will be down for approximately one hour for a system upgrade on Wednesday, October 22. The system downtime will occur sometime between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m. Central Time.

BFA member Clara Reese has sent along photographs from the Bunker Family Reunion in June, and these have been added to out photo gallery.

The Bunker Family Association’s shared photo gallery has been moved to a new web address due to a change in ownership of the previous site. The new address for the photo gallery is:

https://douglasdetling.smugmug.com/BFA.

Although in the future visitors may not be required to enter a password or register, for the time being visitors will need this password to enter the BFA’s photo gallery: CND_BunkY!

BFA Web Master Doug Detling is pleased to announce the birth of another granddaughter, Nora Kay
Detling, born August 22, 2008. She was a great birthday present for Doug’s youngest son, Shannon, who will share his birthdays from now on.

Mother Amanda is doing well, and of course older brother Daniel is excited to have a baby sister.

Like her brother, father and grandfather, Nora will also have the designation D15-II in the BFA numbering system.

Our own Bette Bunker Richards has been selected for a distinguished service award by the Federation of Genealogical Societies. The award will be presented September 5 at the FGS annual banquet in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Here’s an excerpt from the award message by FGS Awards Committee Chair Sue Kaufman:

“The Federation of Genealogical Societies is proud to award Bette Bunker Richards a Distinguished Service Award for her service to the Bunker Family Association and researchers far and wide.

Her distinguished service in evidenced by her long history in genealogy – ‘long before’ 1976. Her love for helping researchers, ‘pulling rabbits out of hats’, adding to the Family archives….the ‘wealth of new data is staggering.’ It is for these activities and more, such as carrying on of the Dover branch genealogy research by releasing a CD on that branch the award is given. As a librarian I know how valuable those compiled family histories are, especially the one of this magnitude and scope. And bringing the family into the 21st century by marshalling the Bunker DNA project brings distinguished service to the community of genealogy by archiving the family history through science – and understanding what the report means! In addition to her service to the genealogical community her giving spirit helps the community at large through additional activities. The Federation is proud to award Bette Bunker Richards a Distinguished Service award for her ‘spectacular and inexhaustible’ service to the genealogical community.”

Maralyn Anderson has sent along her photos from the BFA Reunion in Portland.

The Bunker Family Association’s shared photo gallery has been moved to a new web address due to a change in ownership of the previous site. The new address for the photo gallery is:

https://douglasdetling.smugmug.com/BFA.

Although in the future visitors may not be required to enter a password or register, for the time being visitors will need this password to enter the BFA’s photo gallery: CND_BunkY!

10 of our newly published CDs on the Devon Bunkers appear to be defective due to a corrupt file. We have accounted for all and they have been replaced.

Many thanks for the quick responses so we could replace these.