My own line comes from an ancestor named Henry Bump who came from New
York State to Michigan. My great-grandfather was William Nelson Bump, my
grandfather was Merrill William Bump, and my father is William Merrill
Bump. His siblings are Charles, John, Mary, and Tom. Most of grandpa's
descendants are still here in Michigan, though we've lived in several other
places and visited many more.
For more info on the early years here in Genesee County, see The
Bumps and Bruises of 100 Years.
It may have been Edward's grandson Samuel, or perhaps one of Sam's sons
who was first called Bump. Actually, it appears that the name was modified
in different ways at different times by different members. Other Bumps/Bumpus...
(What IS the plural of Bumpus?? "Bumpi" has been suggested...) ... of the
late 17th century include Edward's son John, (followed by John Jr. and
John III), Mary, James, Jacob, Benjamin, and Jacob Jr.
Samuel Bump died in 1675, possibly as a soldier during "Phillip's War."
Things get sketchy again after that. There was a Zephaniah and then a William who married Hannah, of whom were born Laurin Aurelius and Alden (1786-1874). There was a Charles Bump (born?) in 1864. The 1800's lead to the Civil War, and soldiers of the Bumpus/Bump lineage from the Massachusetts regiments' records include: Jedidiah, Benjamin F., Edgar L., and Nathaniel. (I've also heard that one of our ancestors was something like a second cousin to Robert E. Lee.) Born in 1862 was Herman Carey Bumpus, who became president of Tufts University, 1914-1919, and Director of the American Museum of Natural History, 1902-1911, who was followed by Herman Carey Jr. and finally Herman Carey III in 1920.
When I had a subscription to Prodigy, I heard from some other Bumps:
Richard, who said his family was originally from Middleboro, Mass, but had been in the area of Dallas, Texas since the '50's, and had a line of guys with Warren as a middle name and a tradition of being Navy men. He also had heard that our family "hav e been kicked out of every country but the United States," and that "they started in England, then Holland..." and the story about the boat after the Mayflower sounded familiar to him, too.
William Bumpass contributed "the name was originally Bon Pas and originated in France in January 1240. In the Wars of Raymond VII Count of Toulese." He got the story from "A GENEALOGY OF THREE BRANCHES OF THE BUMPASS FAMILY" By William Moses Jones, co pyrighted 1962, Monument Publishing Co., printed by Firm Foundation Publishing House, Austin, Texas. There weren't any of the Bump branches mentioned in it. He said the book mentioned another entitled "THE STORY OF THE BUMPASS FAMILY" by Mrs. Mootie Clem mons Cherry, also of Texas, published in 1943.
There was a Bill from California. He was born and raised in Potsdam, New York, and his father Ernest lived in Catskill, NY, and HIS father was Walter, born in Colton, NY. I think there may be other Bumps in California who've been there a long time. My grandfather told of a relative (a cousin?) who was one of the first surfers out there, long before the surfing craze began. But he might not have been a Bump or Bumpus.
Boyd Bumpus said his grandfather changed his name from Bumpass to Bumpus in 1920, and Boyd's father moved from Illinois by wagon train in 1916 and settled in Harrington, Washington. Boyd said he knew a Roberta Bump in high school in Spokane. He shared his knowlege of the story of Edward Bumpus and the 2nd ship after the Mayflower, and, as he put it, "Bon Passe is French for Bumpus and means 'long pass in the mountains' ... also means 'good job'."
Steve Bump had moved from New York to Connecticut, and also knew the story of coming from France. His grandmother new a lot of family history, including the 2nd ship story, and how some of the family migrated into Massachusetts and others into Connect icut, and later, both families moves west into New York state. She said the name was originally pronounced bump-eh-see.
I also "met" a Larry Bump from Ohio when we were posting to the same
echo of FIDOnet. He shared the following: "Great-Grandfather was John Curtis,
married to Molly
Grandfather is Carroll, married to Thelma
Father was John Lee, married to Judy.
Carrol had a brother who moved to Marysville Ohio... I think his name
started with an L.
I have heard ... of an African-American family of Bumps in California."
My mother's side of the family, the Quillets, are from Ohio, and before
that I believe they were French Canadians. My paternal grandmother's family
are also French Canadian in origin.
I also got an e-mail from a Herb Bump:
Subject: Charles Bump
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 1997 11:36:09 -0800
From: Herb Bump <herbbump@tdo.infi.net>
Reply-To: herbbump@tdo.infi.net
Organization: InfiNet
To: Dbump@concentric.net
Dear David,
I appreciate your reply. I got the information from your website,
nice
job! I ask my cousin Dan, who has a son named David about your
age,
where grandad was born. He seemed to think it was Iowa, but grandad
lived all his life as far as we knew in the oilfield in Oklahoma.
My
dad also lived and died in the oilfields of the midwest. As far
as
anyone can remember grandad (Charles Bump) had one brother named Joe
that spent his life in Idaho digging for gold. Charles Bump had
a large
family, 5 sons and two daughters. All are dead except the two
daughters
and the youngest son.
Most sincerely,
Herb Bump
Have a nice day in the LORD...
There's even some other David Bumps out there! here's a nice e-mail
from one of them...
Subject: David Bump Home Page
Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2000 20:07:27 -0500
...
Dear David,
I would like to compliment you on a most interesting page on the Bump
Family. I especially find it interesting since my name is also
David Bump
and I was born and grew up in Michigan. My home was in Hastings.
My Father
was Dale Bump, but I know little about the Bump family. He was
adopted by
the Fred Bump family as an infant. I remember his saying that
the family
had moved from New York State several generations earlier. Carry
on the
good work.
Best regards,
David Bump
Email David: send e-mail to david.bump(stick an at sign (@) here)att.net -- you can figure that out, right? I wrote it that way to foil programs that send spam to me, and maybe to you in my name. Blame the loss of automatic "mailto" links on the hackers and spammers.
You can use your "Back" button to go back where you came from, or use this link to go to the main/index page of my website: David Bump's Homepage.