AUBURN CITIZEN Wednesday, July 4, 2001 Bushes' Roots Lead To CNY Search for great-great-great-great-great grandparents leads here. Wednesday, July 4, 2001 By David L. Shaw President George W. Bush has family roots in Cayuga County, buried in a Union Springs cemetery. Timothy Bush, a veteran of the War of 1812, the president's great-great-great uncle, is buried in Chestnut Hill Cemetery on Grove Street. His headstone states he was born in 1795 and died in 1870. But the president's great-great-great-great-great grandparents, Timothy and Deborah House Bush, may also be buried in the same village cemetery. The uncertainty is due to the fact that there is no gravestone, marker or burial records indicating where the two are buried, making it a guessing game. Adding to the intrigue is the fact that there is space next to the great-great-great uncle's grave for at least two other people to be buried - but no marker or records exist to show who, if anyone, is buried there. The presidential Bush family has previously been made aware of at least one Cayuga County connection in their ancestry, but to date there's been little response. The White House had no comment on this story and will continue to look into the matter, a spokesman said Tuesday. From Figura..I called, got the press office at 4 p.m....was told a spokesman would get back to me...I gave my deadline as 6 p.m...I waited until 6:45 p.m... called back and got him paged...he was very insistent I not use his name... I've agreed to fax himthe story Thursday morning and he promised he'd comment more then...What you have above is what he insisted should be the reaction.... The "original" Timothy Bush of Connecticut - the great-great-great-great-great grandfather - served in the French and Indian War in 1756 and later as a captain in the Vermont militia in the American Revolutionary War, according to local historians. As such, he was entitled to 300 acres of land in a military tract in New York. There is no record of him ever taking that land, but he did come to western Cayuga County to an area that later became the town of Springport (incorporated 1823) in 1809, said Springport town historian Jane Berry. He set up the first blacksmith shop in Springport at the corner of Cayuga and Mill streets. That area later became the village of Union Springs, which was incorporated in 1848. Berry is reluctant to say that the direct ancestor of president Bush is buried today in the village-run, Chestnut Hill Cemetery. "There is just no way of knowing without records or a marker. Research has shown he lived here, and there's some indication they (he and his wife) are buried here, but I can't say for sure," Berry said. In May 1989, Berry received a visit and follow-up letter from Donald D. Bush of Moreno Valley, Calif., who was researching his family genealogy. He said his research reveals that the Timothy Bush who is buried in Chestnut Hill and it has a grave marker was the great-great uncle of then-President George Herbert Walker Bush. "The second Timothy (the blacksmith's son) is buried in Penfield, near Rochester," Donald Bush wrote. "And both his father and (mother) are buried in Springport. I have enclosed a copy of the microfilmed will of the Timothy buried in Penfield, which helps explain why there is no stone or marker for the graves (of) Timothy and Deborah - no money," Donald Bush said. "We are certain that Timothy and Deborah, his wife, are buried in Springport, probably Union Springs," he added. Donald Bush indicated he and his wife planned to return to New York in the summer of 1989 to do more research "and discuss the possibility of erecting a memorial stone." But Berry said she never saw or heard from Donald Bush again. She said he was in poor health at the time. His letter states that his research showed that he had a distant familial tie to the presidential family. Thomas G. Eldred, Cayuga County historian and long-time Union Springs resident, also said he can't say with absolute certainty that the current president's great-great-great-great-great grandparents are buried in Union Springs. On behalf of the Cayuga County Bicentennial Commission, Eldred wrote a letter in February 1998 to former President George Herbert Walker Bush, living in Houston, Texas, at the time. The letter invited him to be the grand marshal of the May 31, 1999 bicentennial parade in Auburn and to attend the display of the movable Vietnam War memorial wall at Emerson Park. "Your (War of 1812) ancestor, Timothy Bush (the great-great-great uncle), is buried in Chestnut Hill Cemetery in the village of Union Springs," Eldred wrote. Eldred added the invitation was being forwarded "because you carried this county four times in national elections for vice president and president." Bush was scheduled to be in Europe at the time of the parade so he could not accept the parade invitation, Eldred said. "So I wrote back saying he could come here any time it was convenient," he said. "The reply was that would not be possible." Michael J. Cuddy Jr. of Auburn, an historian now living in Ithaca, offers another claim that the president's direct ancestors are also buried in Union Springs. In a letter to the December 2000 issue of O'Hearn's Histories, a local publication, Cuddy said readers might be interested to know that then presidential-contender George W. Bush is descended from Timothy Bush, a blacksmith who lived, died and was buried in Union Springs. The will of Timothy Bush II (1766-1850) - Timothy and Deborah's son - was filed in Monroe County Surrogate Court July 15, 1850. The will states that gravestones should be provided for his father and mother, who were buried in Springport, if his estate exceeded $800 in value after all his debts had been settled. The gravestones were not to exceed in cost "the sum of $30 together." Apparently the tombstones were never bought, Berry said. Cayuga's roots of the Bush family tree Timothy Bush, whose ancestors came here from England, was born in 1735 in Connecticut. He married Deborah House on April 12, 1759, in Hebron, Conn. They moved to Springport in 1809. Timothy Bush died in 1815 in Springport. Deborah House Bush died in 1819, also in Springport. They had a child, Timothy Bush II, who was born April 1, 1766 in Lebanon, Conn. He married Lydia Newcomb on July 26, 1791 in Penfield, near Rochester. They had a child, Obadiah Newcomb Bush, who was born Jan. 28, 1797. Timothy Bush II died in May 1850 in Rochester. Obadiah N. Bush married Harriett Smith on Nov. 8, 1821 in Rochester. They had a son, James Smith Bush, born June 15, 1825. Obadiah Bush died in 1851. James Smith Bush married Harriet Fay Feb. 24, 1859 in New York City. They had a child, Samuel Prescott Bush, born Oct. 4, 1863. James Smith Bush died Nov. 11, 1889. Samuel Prescott Bush married Flora Sheldon on June 20, 1894. They had a son, Prescott Sheldon Bush, born May 15, 1895. Samuel Prescott Bush died Feb. 8, 1948 in Columbus, Ohio. "Prescott Sheldon Bush married Dorothy Walker Aug. 6, 1921 in Kennebunkport, Maine. The had five children, including former President George Herbert Walker Bush, born June 12, 1924. He married Barbara Pierce on Jan. 6, 1945 in Rye, N.Y. They had six children, including George Walker Bush, the current president. - Genealogy of the Presidents of the U.S.A. Web site © 2001 The Syracuse Newspapers. Used with permission.