L (Bilyard) Bogard

Ancestors

Problems/Questions Profile manager: L Bogard [send private message]

Biography

((My paternal history has changed recently. The BILYARD surname is no longer relevant, though it was my last name at birth. The actual surname of my father’s father was DENSBERGER. His biological father is believed to be Frederick Densberger [ Densberger-6 ] son of Francis Densberger and Catherine Jaeger.))

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My father’s BILYARD relatives lived in Bradley, Kankakee County, Illinois and helped lovingly raise him . I want to keep them here as his family:

See the following links: OUR BILYARD HISTORY written by L Bilyard Bogard: https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Space:Our_Bilyard_History&errcode=new_profile

BILYARD FAMILY TREE created by L Bilyard Bogard: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Bilyard_Family_Tree

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OUR BILYARD HISTORY

By L Bilyard Bogard 2013

The original spelling of our surname was Billiald !

Recent research has revealed that our name BILYARD was originally BILLIALD. Evidence from official records of estate business, births, deaths, and marriages show that several Billiald families lived in the area known as Great Markham, Nottinghamshire, England as early as 1594, when Robert Billiald, a “yoeman”, was identified in a landholder transaction in the tiny village West Markham, Nottinghamshire, England. By 1639 about a mile away in East Markham several Billiald families were living and this continued to be the largest cluster of Billiald families through the late 1700’s. The records also show several Billiald men and women living in other small villages in the immediate Markham area, particularly Fledborough and Worksop.

It appears most families retained the Billiald spelling until at least the early 1700’s. With new combinations of letters to form a similar phonetic pronuncuation, a transition to Billiard and eventually Billyard occurred in many families. An interesting observation is that the same individuals can be viewed in different family trees using a variety of the spellings, including Billiald, Billiard, Billyard plus Billyeald, Biliard, Billiar, Billyar, and Beliard. They all sound very much alike, especially wi th various accents and dialects within England! (This nugget of information was provided by a distant cousin Sharon Brown, who lives in England)

Around 1800 ‘Billyard’ first appeared in families in the East Markham area. The biggest factor for this change may have been the French Revolution (1789-1799). French-appearing surnames (such as a name ending in ‘-iard’) would have been considered a disadvantage in England so many families made small spelling changes. (This nugget of information also provided by distant cousin Sharon Brown)

William Bilyard, our first ancestor to come to America, was recorded in a 1847 handwritten marriage record as William Bilyard. A few years later on the Guy Mannering ship manifest he was William Billiard. In the Avon, New York 1860 census, the name was spelled Byiliard! In his first Illinois census in 1870 he was again listed as William Bilyard. Whether these differences reflect how he actually spelled his name or are due to recorders versions or transcription ‘errors’ is not known.

Growing up I was always told that any Bilyard spelled ‘Bilyard’ is closely related. The Bilyard’s in the Kankakee Co., Illinois area are certainly related through our William Bilyard.

There are other Bilyard/Billyard/Billiard families clustered on the East Coast, though I have yet to connect them to our Illinois Bilyards. Perhaps we are related. I do know of Billyard’s in Canada with which we share common Nottinghamshire ancestors. I will continue the challenging research of these and other possible modern branches.

From England to Illinois

William Bilyard and his young family were the first of our direct line to immigrate to the United States. Born in East Markham, Nottinghamshire, England, in 1818 to parents who lived in the Great Markham area for at least 3 (probably more) previous generations. William’s marriage to Mary Anne Alcock was recorded in the Marriage Index of the June Quarter 1847 in the District of Newark, Lincolnshire/Nottinghamshire. According to United Kingdom 1851 census records William was an “agricultural labourer”, implying he did not own his own land.

William, Mary Anne and their 2 oldest children Mary Anne and John Thomas, left England on the ship Guy Mannering, arriving in New York on June 10, 1852. William and Mary Anne lived about ten years in New York State. The family is listed in the 1860 census of the town of Avon in Livingston County, New York, with children Mary A. age 11, John age 8, William, age 6, Charlotte E. age 2, and George age 6 months. Samuel was born there in 1862. The family arrived in Bourbonnais, Kankakee County, Illinois sometime before 1864, when their daughter Sarah was born in ~1864. By that time they are listed in the 1880 census. Their last child Fred followed in ~1871. When William Bilyard brought his young family to Bourbonnais, Illinois, the village and surrounding area was steeping with folks with French surnames. The village was named after Francois Bourbonnais, Sr., a fur trapper, hunter and agent of the American Fur Company, who had arrived in the area in 1830. Known originally as Bourbonnais Grove, it became the Village of Bourbonnais in 1876. The pronunciation of Bourbonnais came to be Anglicized over time to ‘burr bow ness’, but in 1974 a resolution "corrected" to its original French pronunciation: ‘burr bon-nay’. My father Donald Bilyard and his cousins grew up pronouncing it the Anglicized way. William and Mary Anne homesteaded a large parcel of land near the Kankakee River. Over a century and half the farm had a variety of horses and livestock as well as crops, including corn, soy beans, wheat and hay. William and Mary Anne first built a home west of Flickerville Road north of Route 102. At some time they relocated to the southwest side of the parcel to face Route 102. Here they built a two-story home that burned around 1899 and then a new single story-home was built on the original foundation in 1900. This home still sits on that old foundation, it’s modern postal address 4891 West State Route 102. It was listed in the 1917 Prairie Farmer's Directory of Kankakee County as owned by William’s son John Thomas Bilyard and passed through a few other Bilyard families until 2013.

According to the 1870 census of Rockville township, Kankakee County, William and Mary Anne Bilyard were living at home John age 18, William age 16, Samuel age 7, Sarah F. age 5, with Charlotte and George not present and assumed had passed away sometime between the 1860 and 1870 census’s. Ten years later the 1880 census of Rockville township, Kankakee County, William and Mary Anne Bilyard were living at home with Samuel age 17, Sarah age 15, and Fred age 9 (he was missing in the 1870 record!); the older children were no longer living at home. It is interesting to note that a family listed two rows below the Bilyard family in 1880 was the Jacob Cox family …. Samuel, our direct ancestor, would marry daughter Alberta Cox a few years later.

From the union of Samuel and Alberta were six children: Oliver (1884), Myrtle (1889), Earl (1891), my grandfather George Oscar (1892), Howard (1899), and Dorothy (1906). Many of the descendants of these 6 children, as well as their cousins, continue to live in the rural area, some within a mile of the original homestead.

What’s in a Name?

An interesting line of thought to consider in discovering our history might be in looking at the root words used in our name:

European surnames were often given as nicknames that gave reference to a variety of physical or personal characteristics, habits of dress, or occupation; ‘bill-’ is a suffix word that can mean spear or shafted weapon and ‘–ard’, as a French root adapted from the Germanic, means “hardy or bold”. The suffix ‘iard’ is also a relatively common root ending for French surnames; The suffix ‘-ard’ can also mean ‘son of” in many European cultures; Comments on the English origin of the name found at www.surnamedb.com: Bilyard / Billyard / Billiard Recorded in many spelling forms including Bullard, Ballard, Belward, Bellyard, Billiard, Billyard, and Bellard, this is an early English surname. It is or rather was, a nickname …. in this case the derivation … from the Middle English word "balle" (referring to) a hairless patch on the skull, and therefore probably a reference to a monk or holy man.

Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

Excerpts except italics from www.surnamedb.com According to http://www.houseofnames.com/billiard-family-crest/French “Billiard is a French topographical surname, which is a type of hereditary surname.” Topographic names were given to a person who resided near a physical feature such as a hill, stream, church, stand of trees, etc. Perhaps Billiard/Bilyard could mean a ‘bold spear’ or possibly ‘one who bears a hardy spear’, or ‘son of the bold spear bearer’! Or maybe ‘son of bald spear bearer’! ; Many Belgian surnames are of French origin yet according to http://www.eupedia.com/belgium/belgian_surnames.shtml many Walloon surnames had medieval German origins and end in ‘-art’ or ‘-ard’. I mention this because a line of Belgian’s from Walloonia named Belliare became Bilyard after they immigrated to Norfolk region of England in the mid-1600’s. No connection to this group, as our line has adults named in historical records placing them in the same area in the late 1590’s.

Such a tangle of ideas!

We may never really know our name’s origin. Could it have originated in France or Belgium? Or was it English in the first place? To be sure, the origin of our name Bilyard is open for discussion, speculation, and old-fashioned guessing!

Early Billiald Roots ~ a collection of clues

Until very recently, I only searched our family using the most modern spelling version of BILYARD. Through rediscovering lost emails with valuable hints I learned the family used older versions of the name prior to 1800, in particular Billiald …. and then Pandora’s Box Opened!!!!

Connecting the early Billiald’s of the Great Markham area of Nottinghamshire to known forefathers in the late 1700’s and 1800’s to family of our William Bilyard is not the real challenge... they had not ventured away from the area. The challenge has been to find direct lines of those ancestors to our known ancestors.

As far back as 1594 the Billiald surname is found in numerous documents in the The National Archives of England, University of Nottingham’s Manuscripts and Special Collections (MSS) and several Registers in the County of Nottinghamshire.

Sources

• First-hand information. Entered by L Bilyard at registration.