Hi Sharon! What a chance to get on the soapbox! This topic was once discussed almost to death between 1 and 2 years ago, so I hope the oldtimers will forgive me, or at least correct me. The DUBOIS and DUBOSE lines are completely different lines. Having said that, however, you should know that there have been DUBOSEs who have eventually changed the spelling of their name to DUBOIS, and then there are the hybrid DUBOISE families who may be descended from either. My theory is that all DUBOSE lines can trace their ancestry back to ISAAC DUBOSE, who in turn was a duBosc/duBosq prior to coming to SC. I think it was a simple matter of turning that c into an e--either a clerical error or misspelling or by design (but why?) There may be duBosq/duBosc connections with duBois back in France, but I haven't seen proof. Suffice it to say that they are two different lines in SC and America. Indeed, it would be quite rare to find the name Dubose north of the Mason-Dixon line prior to 1800, whereas the DuBois name is all over the place, especially northern US thanks to the procreative proclivities of the descendants of one Chretien DuBois. The southern branches prior to the Rev. War of the DUBOIS family are mostly those descended from my line, JOHN DUBOIS, of the Charleston area who was paying quitrents in the province by 1696. Even though the DUBOIS and the DUBOSE families lived in the same areas with similar occupations and religious preferences (at least early on), you will rarely find them intermarrying (I don't think I've seen it at all, but it is possible.) The southern DUBOSE families multiplied at about the same miraculous rate as the northern DUBOIS families and are today quite numerous. Many Dubose famlies were slave owners, and you will find quite a few African American Duboses as a result. W.E.B. duBois notwithstanding, there are relatively few African American DuBois by comparison. In the south, the DuBois' tended to own small numbers of slaves if at all, and slaveowning DuBois of the north probably freed theirs well before their southern counterparts. W.E.B. DuBois was a descendant of a northern DuBois grandfather who had fought for the British in the RW; he settled in the Islands for a while and produced at least one mixed race child who in turn was W.E.B.'s father. I may be off by one generation here. The DuBoses tended to migrate throughout the south; the DuBois' stayed in SC, or left for Alabama and TN. The DuBoses were more often Baptist; the DuBois, Methodist, although a DuBose was a Methodist bishop. Today the Duboses are so much more numerous than the DuBois in the South that southerners often will look at the name "DuBois" and pronounce it "DuBose". I don't know if the reverse is true in the north. So there you have at least some of the theories. Mostly personal observations, so take them with a grain of salt. Except to say that these truly are two different lines. I would remind you, however, that census takers misspelled both family names constantly, using the other's name by mistake, but that does not mean the families were related. Inthe 1790 census for Cheraw District in SC, for example, nearly all those listed as "Duboise" are in fact "Dubose". Elizabeth DuBois Russo Sharon Starling wrote: > > Hi Elizabeth, > I have attached a portion of your earlier message. I am from a DuBose line > and fairly new at this. Just wondered if you could explain a little about > DuBois as opposed to DUBOSE. Are the lines related, with just a change in > the spelling or a completely different family. > Thanks, > Sharon > > > Is this guy my own ancestor PETER DUBOIS whom I thought only hung out in > > Charleston and Old Berkeley County (St. Thomas/St. Denis Parish)? Or is > > he a DUBOSE? Or is the origination of a new DUBOISE line?? > >