About the Richards Families in North America
There are already identified some 50 separate Richards Families of colonial North America, in both the United States and Canada. Our goal is to allow researchers of the surname "Richards" to identify which immigrant lines connect to them, and to allow contact with others who have collaborated on this Surname project. We also will attempt to note Loyalist families removing to Canada after the American Revolution.
Other Richards immigrants continued to arrive after the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th century. We will maintain a 19th Century Immigrants Project page for all researchers interested in documenting 19th century arrivals, and the first generation of their children. And finally it has been suggested that those who have researched Passenger Lists could use a page to maintain documentation of arrivals, in whatever century, for those still trying to find connections with immigrant ancestors.
The name 'Richard' itself is Norman, and did not appear in England until after the Conquest in 1066. The name was still considered 'foreign' among the people of England and Wales until the reign of Richard the Lion-Heart, 1189-1199. Then, common people throughout the realm began naming their sons after the short-lived, but heroic king. When surnames became required, the English generally used 'Richardson', but the Welsh and the Celtic inhabitants of the West Country [Cornwall and Devon] usually chose the form 'Richards'.
In East Canada, the French surname 'Richer' was anglicized to 'Richards' as families migrated into upstate New York.
About the westward migration
History doesn't occur in a vacuum, and migration westward was contingent on historical factors such as wars between the French and the British for control of Quebec and the Great Lakes country, as well as killing off the native people to seize their lands. Members of the Richards family of nearly every generation fought in such wars, as well in various campaigns against 'the Red Coats' of the American Revolution.
Members of the Richards family of nearly every generation fought in such wars, as well in various campaigns against 'the Red Coats' of the American Revolution.
The Great Westward Migration that followed came in several waves. One wave of settlers were the families that split apart, some staying and some moving west along the Erie Canal, into the Ohio Valley, and the Upper Midwest. southern famillies would either move southward through the Shannendoah Valley into the Carolinas and Georgia, or in the 19th century, out through the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, along the National Road into the Ohio Valley and beyond.
About the westward migration
History doesn't occur in a vacuum, and migration westward was contingent on historical factors such as wars between the French and the British for control of Quebec and the Great Lakes country, as well as killing off the native people to seize their lands. Members of the Richards family of nearly every generation fought in such wars, as well in various campaigns against 'the Red Coats' of the American Revolution.
Members of the Richards family of nearly every generation fought in such wars, as well in various campaigns against 'the Red Coats' of the American Revolution.
The Great Westward Migration that followed came in several waves. One wave of settlers were the families that split apart, some staying and some moving west along the Erie Canal, into the Ohio Valley, and the Upper Midwest. southern famillies would either move southward through the Shannendoah Valley into the Carolinas and Georgia, or in the 19th century, out through the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, along the National Road into the Ohio Valley and beyond.
