52 Ancestors #5 Challenge - The Ghost in My Family Tree: The Mystery of John Christopher Boushon
Like a whisper carried across generations, the story of my French ancestor John Christopher Boushon fades in and out of historical records, leaving behind a trail of tantalizing clues and shifting identities. His name dances through family documents in a mesmerizing array of variations: Bouchon , Aubuchon , Aumen Boushon , Almond Boushon – each version perhaps holding a fragment of his true story. The first solid trace of John appears in the most somber of documents – the death certificates of his children. These records speak of a man born under French skies, though whether those skies belonged to France proper or the vast territories of New France remains shrouded in mystery. The year 1839 whispers from family lore, placing his birth in an era when borders and identities were as fluid as the surnames that would follow him. Tragedy struck early in John's American story. By 1882, both he and his young wife, Lucy Jane Wallen , had slipped away from this w...
