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The Busch's of Ruscombmanor Township and beyond...

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The house that Benjamin built...

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My branch of the Busch family tree had its genesis in Ruscombmanor Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania.

Ruscombmanor Township is located in beautiful Berks County, Pennsylvania and was originally known as the Manor of Ruscomb, named after a district in Wales, and settled in 1749 as part of Philadelphia County and incorporated in 1752 as Ruscombmanor Township.

Pricetown, the only village in the township, took its name from Conrad Price . Conrad Price was one of the first members of the Dunkards, also known as "The Brethen", and sometimes called "German Baptists" who settled in Oley, PA. Named Elders were the first preachers. Conrad laid out Pricetown, a village in Ruscombmanor Township about 1774. It contained 25 houses, one store, and 2 taverns with a population of 165.

Heinrich Busch, aka Henry Bush b. 1779 d. 1851, my 4th great-grandfather, is the most distant, direct descendant of the family located thus far. We could not locate him on the 1790 or the 1800 U.S. Census' for Ruscombmanor Township but he does appear in every census from 1810 until his death in 1851. In all census' he is recorded as being born in Pennsylvania, where remains a mystery.

In 1828 Heinrich purchases 98 acres from Daniel Herbein for the princely sum of $1,350.00. and pursues farming as a vocation. His eldest son Benjamin is 17 and is engaged with his father in running the farm. Although nothing is known of the original dwelling that stood on the property the picture above is the house that Benjamin constructed circa 1850. Today it is a three unit apartment building with only 15 of the original 98 acres remaining. The stone bank barn, also built by Benjamin, today is being used as the maintenance shop/garage for Golden Oaks Golf Course.

Ownership of the farm continued by the family until Heinrich's grandson, Israel, either gives up farming or is forced to. May of 1897 Israel is appointed to the office of tax collector for Ruscombmanor Township to replace John Bertolet. The year 1900 finds Israel no longer owning the farm but living in a rented house still employed by the township as tax collector. From 1902 the family will call the City of Reading and its environs, home...

The Bush's home from 1902 on...

Lorem Ipsum



A view of Reading from the west side of the Schuykill River

Reading, county seat of Berks County, Pennsylvania where the family will call home from 1902 to present although most of us have scattered to other parts of the county and country

Clicking on the highlighted link takes you to the Berks History Center's home page.

Check out the Mulimedia/Articles section where you'll find the popular pages on organized crime figures of Reading.

I was a resident of Reading during the McDevitt/Kubacki era and remember many of the characters written about there. I actually delivered the daily newspaper to Mayor Kubacki... that and a buck and a half will get you a small coffee... enjoy the articles.


Keith W. Bush



Mark Twain, a man I greatly admire once commented on genealogy, he wrote:

Why waste your money looking up your family tree? Just go into politics and your opponents will do it for you.

Isn't that the truth?
interest



The Genealogical Society of Berks County

The Society is a valuable asset when researching people of Berks County and is well worth the small membership fee. Click here to go to their website.

For the those individuals who are stickler's about Heraldry the shields presented on this site are for show ONLY I'm aware that Coat of Arms are awarded to an INDIVIDUAL not a family... but in lieu of nothing they are much prettier!

Clicking on any of the pictures accompanying the paragraphs on the right side of the page will take you to further information about the topic of said paragraph. Please enjoy the material presented...

Spelling & information error's...

Every genealogist knows it to be the truth...

This article appeared in our local newspaper in 1870. The writer, A. Sufferer, said it so well and every genealogist knows it to be the truth.

Reading Eagle, Reading, PA July 6, 1870

"THE CENSUS ENUMERATORS
Mr. Editor: Considerable complaint is made in regard to some of the newly appointed Census enumerators in this city. In some instances names are most abominably misspelled, and the remonstrance's of the persons who are thus made to lose their identity are of no avail. The plainest and simplest names are spelled in such a manner as to be unrecognizable, and there is no doubt that similar mistakes will be made in regard to ages and figures generally. It is important that the Census of 1870 should be complete and accurate, but from present appearances it will be just the reverse. At $8 a day competent men can certainly be found to take the Census. Is there no redress for this bungling?"


Family name spelling was changed...

Heinrich Busch, 1779-1851 my 4th great-grandfather either changed the spelling himself or it was changed by some nefarious English speaking low life... Name changes (anglicization of German, or any non-english names) appear to have been prevalent at that time. Many other families of that era changed, or had changed by others, both their given and surnames. The Braun's, who many of the Busch women married, became Brown. Althaus became Althouse, Albrecht was changed to Albright and so forth. Given names such as Johannes were changed to John, Heinrich to Henry, Wilhelm to William...

So, was it that Heinrich wanted to 'fit in' and adopted the English spelling or was it that nefarious English clown? I'm not sure, the predominate culture of Ruscombmanor Township in the late 1700's. early 1800's was German not English but still names evolved to English spellings, and quite early. Alas, who really knows... unfortunatly, in the end, I'm still known as Keith W. BUSH


Families of Ruscombmanor Township circa 1850

There were quite a number of families living in the township at this time. They included the Rauenzahn's, Manwiller's, Brown's/Braun's, Haas, Miller's among many others.

The Busch family inter-married with many of the surrounding families namely the Rauenzahn's, the Brown's especially, and the Haas's.

Four of the five children that Heinrich and Magdalena raised, which married, married neighboring Braun's/Brown's


Hessian's in Berks County...

Our efforts to locate the parents of Heinrich Busch have reached an impasse.
I had thought maybe, just maybe, Heinrich's father might have been a Hessian war prisoner detained at Reading.
Capture of the combatants occurred 25 Dec. 1776, the camp at Reading was established 1781-1783, additionally, there was a camp in Ruscombmanor Township of approximately 750 men. Soldiers who had wives and children (some of the Hessian mercenaries brought along wives and children) were allowed to have them present in camp. Heinrich was born 4 Oct 1779 somewhere in Pennsylvania... maybe, just maybe.
An additional source of Palatine German Immigrant Ships to Philadelphia 1727-1808 can be found here.

Strausstown Roots... a favorite!

For those researching Berks, Montgomery, Philadelphia, Schuylkill, Dauphin, York and Huntingdon counties. With over 305,000 individuals, specializing in the Strausstown, Pennsylvania area.



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