Burval Family of Moravia and Ohio

Note: This genealogy is best read by first reading the introduction below and then following the suggestions for browsing  and viewing these pages.

Introduction

This is a genealogy of Jan Burval (1646-1686) of Moravia and his descendants, many of whom immigrated to Cleveland, Ohio in 1875. 

A collateral work entitled "The Burval Family of Bohemia and Illinois" has also been started in an effort to link the Burval families of Bohemia with the Burval families of Moravia (contained in this genealogy). The Bohemian Burvals' lived in small Bohemian villages a few kilometers south of Hermanuv Mestec in Okres Chrudim of the modern day Czech Republic. The Moravian Burvals' lived in small Moravian villages near Jimramov in Okres Zdar nad Sazavou of the modern day Czech Republic. These two areas are about 40 kilometers apart and one might expect these two families with such rare surnames to be related. That relationship has yet to be positively established in spite of having traced both families back into the late 1600's. The compiler of this genealogy is descended from the Moravian Burvals' through Frank Burval (1844-1903) who immigrated to Cleveland, Ohio in 1875. Perhaps sometime in the future these families will be linked into a single Burval genealogy.

The Burval surname is very rare both in the United States and in Czechoslovakia. There have been only three Burval Families found in the United States. These three families were started by three distinct immigrant ancestors. All three are believed to be related and descended from a common ancestor in Bohemia or Moravia of present day Czechoslovakia. The three families are: 1) the descendants of Frank Burval (b.1844) of Cleveland, Ohio who arrived at the Port of New York on 21 May 1873 2) the descendants of Joseph Frank Burval (b.1884) of Des Plains, Illinois who arrived at the Port of New York on 24 Mar 1909 and the family of Jan Burval of San Rafael, California who arrived in the United State in the 1960's. Until recent years these families did not know of each others existence nor been in contact with each other. There are about 90  known descendants of Frank Burval about 30 descendants of Joseph Frank Burval and 2 descendants of Jan Burval. There are three Frank's, one Effie (female version of Frank), one Franklin, four Joseph's, and two Rose's in these two families which shows a common use of those names. The number of Burval's in Czechoslovakia is not know but is believed to be very small.

The Burval name is written Burval in the Czech language. The checkmark (hacek) over the r is pronounced as rz.

In the Czech language, the first syllable is always accented. This leads to the Czech pronunciation of the name as Burz'-vall or as I have heard it as a young boy, Boozh'-vall where the u is a long u or oo as in boot. This pronunciation is also supported by the 1880 Census taker writing Frank Burval's name as Bushwall. Today all members of the family pronounce it Burr-vall, much like it reads, without any accent on either syllable.

One hears of the surname being changed by an immigration officer or other official as the person enters the United States. I have searched all early documents to determine if the name Burval had been modified and except for the dropping of the accent mark over the r the spelling remains consistently unchanged. Also since the U. S. Immigration service was not formed until 1906 the Frank Burval family probably did not go through any special immigration procedures on arrival in the United States. They came long before Ellis Island was established in 1892. The Joseph Frank Burval family very likely did past through Ellis Island. However, there is no change in the name spelling except dropping the checkmark over the r. The Czech's, as were most immigrants, were known to be a proud, law abiding people who, as a rule, strongly insisted on the correct spelling and pronunciation of their names.

    How To Read This Genealogy

This genealogy is presented in a format that is intended to take advantage of the Internet and web browsers to make it easier for the viewer to read.     A good place to start (after reading this Introduction) is to read the page on Jan Burval (1646-1686), then click on any of his children to read about them.  If there are + signs following the name of a child this indicates that there are children of that child on that child's page.   Another place to start is by clicking on "Descendant Chart for Jan Burval (1646-1686)"  you will be taken to a traditional family tree descendancy chart which shows all the descendants and how they are related.    By clicking on the name of any individual on those charts you will be taken to that individuals page.   There are pop-up pedigree charts on each individual that will show you that individual's parents and grandparents.  Also be aware of little icons such as a "camera" icon that when clicked will link you to a photo of that individual.   In addition there is the traditional index and master index for finding individuals.

Most names and all information on living persons has been suppressed from this genealogy. Birth, marriage, death and burial information that we have is shown for all deceased persons. The source of that information for each person is contained in abbreviated source footnotes with each individual.  The abbreviated source footnotes are linked to a full source citation.

    Acknowledgements

This work is the effort of a great many researchers who have generously contributed information on their branches of this family. Their specific contributions are cited in the footnotes and source citations.  The compiler wishes to especially thank Joseph S. Burval of Park Ridge, Illinois and Carl Burval of Des Plaines, Illinois for providing invaluable information on this family. If you are a descendant of this family we would be most interested in adding your branch to this genealogy. Please contact us. One of our major research efforts is aimed at identifying all our cousins and adding them to this genealogy.

Compiling a family genealogy requires the collecting and comparison of information from numerous sources over a long period of time. Every effort has been made to document all major sources of information and to make this genealogy as error free and as accurate as possible. However, due to the total amount of information and the varying quality of that information it is bound to contain errors. The compilers would be most appreciative of being informed of any errors the reader encounters.

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This page was created by John Cardinal's Second Site v1.9.9.
This Genealogy last updated on 28 Dec 2006