So how many Bustraans are there? Not many, it
appears. The
1947 Dutch census found 69 instances of the surname Bustraan, with 37
occurrences in Zeeland (compare this to the 54,955 occurrences of the
most common name, De Jong). The familienaam.nl
site, using a 1998 database, identified 33 occurrences of the name in
the Netherlands (see the map below). A recent check of the Nationale
Telefoongids
shows 51 Bustraans with telephone listings, with 30 of them in Zeeland.
Back in America I've found about 45 telephone listings associated with
the surname, with Michigan topping the chart with 22 entries.
Full disclosure. Although this website
initially started to be about the Bustraan name, it should be noted
that the familienaam.nl
and familienaam.be
sites show that between Belgium and the Netherlands, the most prevalent
related surname is Butstraen. We Bustraans are a minority even within
our own family.
These sites report 106 instances of Butstraen in Belgium
and
33 instances of Bustraan in the Netherlands. There are 25 occurences of
Butseraen in Belgium and 16 Bustraens in Belgium. Rik Butstraen
shows that 86 Butstraens were born in France between 1966 and 1990,
mostly in the two northern French Flanders départements of
Pas
de Calais and Nord.