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Mason Bumgarner
Professor Lynn Raymond
UWRT 1103-038
3 November 2015
The Bumgarner Family Origins
The Bumgarner Family is originally from Germany. The first records of
this date back to the early 1100s when the Baum and Gardt families married
together, forming the Baumgartner name. Later, the name used by my
descendants changed spelling to Bumgardner instead. Around 1520, the
family began migrating to Switzerland. They occupied the region for a little
under two hundred years before seeking out a better life in the new world,
now known as America. Once here, they officially changed the family name
to Bumgarner, and it has stayed the same ever since.
My ancestors most likely took a ship across the Atlantic to the new
world. It is unclear of the exact place my ancestors settled once in the new
world, but there is evidence of a small settlement in Pennsylvania. According
to records, they eventually moved to modern day Lincoln County, Gaston
County and Taylorsville areas of North Carolina. To this day, the majority of
the Bumgarner family still resides in the same area, and a lot of which are
still on the same property their ancestors first settled on. For example, my

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great uncle lives on the same property his father lived on, and the original
house is still present there.
When I look back at my family history, the generation that I find most
interesting is that of my Great(x4) Grandfather, Alfred Aaron Bumgarner. He
was born in 1823 and had a total of twelve children, two of which died at
birth. The most astonishing thing is he ended up with seventy nine
grandchildren. Both he and his brothers, along with many of their children
and grandchildren went into battle during the Civil War. There was only a
total of five of them come out alive once the fighting was over. He had an
interesting time in the war himself. He joined at age thirty nine. He joined the
7th NC Infantry Regiment, and was a flag carrier in many big battles,
including what came to be known as Picketts Charge on Gettysburg, PA.
He was wounded twice in battle and even taken prisoner. After he was
released, he was honorably discharged and resided at his home in
Taylorsville, NC until his death in 1904. My family and I visit his grave yearly
during the Bumgarner family reunion every October.
One of Alfreds sons, Andrew Bumgarner, wrote The Little Book,
which documented the familys gruesome experiences during the Civil War
period. It also laid out a family tree made during the period, and gave exact
details of their lives as well. This is how we know so much about the duty of
Alfred Aaron and of the civil war era in our family. I was not able to gain
access to a copy of this book for use in this project, as only two remain, both
are in possession direct ancestors in Taylorsville, NC.

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A common tradition in my family is the passing down of names. For
example, mine comes from my great grandfather, Robert Mason Bumgarner.
My grandfather named my uncle Keith Mason Bumgarner, and my father
named me Mason Bumgarner. There are many occurrences of this
throughout my fathers side of the family. This helps carry on family
traditions and is a good way to stay connected to past generations.
Up until about ten years ago, my grandfather kept a car purchased
new by his grandfather in the early twenties. It was a Ford Model T, and he
always kept it in the building out back. He then decided that it would do
someone else more good than picking up dust in his possession, and sold it.
He has always been a car fanatic, and most recently has developed a
Mustang addiction. He has owned five since 2008, and his most recent is a
2015 5.0 and has much more power than the old Model T he owned, and is
much more fun to drive!
Since retirement, my grandmother has had a passion for family history,
and spends much of her time searching the internet for new information
about her past relatives. She used to watch me on weekdays and we would
search together, and I even helped her make a book on each side of the
family, with pictures she has found and compiled online. I was able to gain
access to a copy of one of these of the Bumgarner side of the family, and it
proved helpful in research topics for this project.

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I have genuinely enjoyed researching my familys past, especially the
aspects of the wars they were involved in, along with the roles they played
within them. I do not think that my research will stop here, as my
grandmother routinely sends me information she digs up in her spare time,
which I find helpful and quite often are good reads.

Works Cited
"Family Trees." Bumgarner Family Tree. Web. 3 Nov. 2015.
Bumgarner, Andrew. "Bumgarner Family History." The Little Book. Print.