Show ContentsBozzard History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

The ancient Anglo-Saxon culture once found in Britain is the soil from which the many generations of the Bozzard family have grown. The name Bozzard was given to a member of the family who was a person named after the bird of the same name. The buzzard was a fairly common bird in medieval England.

Early Origins of the Bozzard family

The surname Bozzard was first found in Bedfordshire at Leighton-Buzzard, a markettown and parish, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Manshead. "The adjunct to the name is either derived from Bosard, the name of a family in the county, who were knights of the shire in the reign of Edward III., or from Beau desert; the prevailing opinion being in favour of the latter." [1]

Early History of the Bozzard family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Bozzard research. Another 224 words (16 lines of text) covering the years 1177, 1258, 1273, 1274, 1500 and 1672 are included under the topic Early Bozzard History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Bozzard Spelling Variations

Sound was what guided spelling in the essentially pre-literate Middle Ages, so one person's name was often recorded under several variations during a single lifetime. Also, before the advent of the printing press and the first dictionaries, the English language was not standardized. Therefore, spelling variations were common, even among the names of the most literate people. Known variations of the Bozzard family name include Buzzard, Boszart, Bozard, Busard, Buzard, Bussard and many more.

Early Notables of the Bozzard family

More information is included under the topic Early Bozzard Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.


United States Bozzard migration to the United States +

For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, the Canadas, the America colonies, and many of smaller tropical colonies in the hope of finding better lives abroad. Although the passage on the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving, those families that survived the trip often went on to make valuable contributions to those new societies to which they arrived. Early immigrants bearing the Bozzard surname or a spelling variation of the name include :

Bozzard Settlers in United States in the 19th Century
  • Rudolph Bozzard, who arrived in Allegany (Allegheny) County, Pennsylvania in 1830 [2]


  1. Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England. Institute of Historical Research, 1848, Print.
  2. Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)


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