The Dubouzet Family History Project

For the longest time, with all of the Dubouzet’s that I have talked with, there has always seemed to be two distinct Dubouzet families that I could not connect.  Those who descended from Candido and those from Jose (which I couldn’t fit in anywhere based on the information that I had).  Candido’s family lived mostly in or near Vito, Negros Occidental and Jose’s family was in or near Davao City.

After a long online chat with Ivie Ramos (one of Jose’s descendants) and exchanging theories on some of the different family members, we were able to conclude that Jose might have been one of Candido’s brothers.  If this is true, we are now up to two brothers, I’ve heard rumors of one more brother, but I have no leads on that.  Ivie also came up with the scenario that Jose, Sr. was Candido’s son or nephew because Jose, Jr. had the middle name of Vicenta and according to family accounts it was taken from the Grandmother — if that was the case would Vincenta Valdez be his Grandmother?  I was digging through some old emails that I received back in 2005 from Roland Dubouzet (also a descendant of Jose) which had also said that due to his family accounts, he believed that Jose was the brother of Candido.  For now, I like the theory that Jose, Sr. is Candido’s brother, but I am very open to any other news that points to him being a son or nephew.

In the coming days, we’ll be updating the Family Tree with some of this new information.  While it’s not confirmed that Jose is Candido’s brother, a lot of the evidence is pointing toward that.  If anyone comes up with any new information relating to this, please contact me.

While this is all exciting news, I still look forward to find some record of Candido and his brothers being in France.  Once we can make the connection to France, that will open up an entirely new chapter in the Dubouzet family as French records (especially of military officers) are exceptionally good.  We could possibly go back another few hundred years.  There are many notable Dubouzets (and du Bouzet) in France with connections to The French Revolution, Napoleon and even back to the village of Bouzet in the south of France (du Bouzet translates to “of bouzet”) which dates back to the 14th century.  Dubouzet or du Bouzet were not common names in France, so I’m somewhat convinced that they are all the part of the same family.

The next step in this process is to confirm if Jose is either the brother, son or nephew of Candido.  Then we can move on to find out who Candido’s father and mother were and where they came from.

Another interesting bit of information: There was a French sailor named Joseph Fidèle Eugène du Bouzet (b. 1805 – d. 1867) who was a French exporer who spent a great deal of time in the South Pacific. He was a Commandant of New Caledonia from 1855 – 1856 and he also had spent some time exploring Antarctica as a first lieutenant on the French naval vessel, Zéléé. There is also a mention of an M. du Bouzet on the expedition (possibly the original French brothers that came to the Philippines???).

Joseph Fidèle Eugène du Bouzet in 1829

L'Astrolabe and Zéléé (on the right) in Antarctica

I really think it’s more than a coincidence that these du Bouzet’s were sailing in the South Pacific fairly close in time to when the first French Dubouzet’s came to the Philippines.  If the connection can be made there will be a flood of information to the Dubouzet family of the Philippines and the noble du Bouzet family of France.

Keep an eye on the blog here and the family tree as information can change quickly.  Thank you again for all of your help on this project.