BORN IN THE USA, BUT…
My RICHARDSON family tree, going back about fifteen generations, includes more than 26,000
individuals in the following known families—on my paternal side, Smith,
Humphrey, Weaver/Weber (Neunkirchen am Potzberg, Germany), Wallace
(Ireland/Scotland), Bozman (London, England), Standiford, Taylor (Lichfield,
Staffordshire, England), Kinge, as well as the related lines of Hughes
(England), Stauffer (Bern, Switzerland), Stewart, Lewis, Plucker, Kempf
(Germany), Stickler (Bern, Switzerland), Goodrich, Keller (Zurich,
Switzerland), and Wohlschlaeger/ Wollenschlager (Germany) as well as on my maternal
side Bankes/Bacher/Benkes /Benkis/Benkus (Germany), Bast (Germany) Bradt
(Norway), Hickerson, Carman, Rickey (Scotland), Bradt De Hooges/Cole/Kool
(Amsterdam, Netherlands) and Swartwout (from The Netherlands on the “De Bonte
Koe” aka “Spotted Cow” in 1660), Decker/Dekker (The Netherlands), Kortreght
(The Netherlands), Otsen (the Amsterdam printer of some fame), and Webber as
well as related lines including Pletcher, Stoneburner/Steinbrenner (Germany),
Mercer (Kent, England) and Taylor (Chester, England), Kiesel (Germany), Price
(England), Johnson (Upper Canada), Gray, Still, Taliaferro (Middlesex,
England), Turner (Germany), and Kolb (Germany).
My analysis also suggests the following predominately Protestant religious beliefs: Anabaptist (Graf families), regular Baptist (Hickerson and Carman families), Church of Christ (Smith families), Church of England (Richardson families), Christian Church (Bankes family), Dutch Reformed (Cole, Swartout families), Lutheran (Bankes, Roberts, Stoneburner/Steinbrenner, Weber/Weaver families), Mennonite (Groff, Herr, Keller families), Methodist Episcopal (Mercer, Richardson, and Smith families), Moravian (Kiesel, Stauffer families), Puritan (my progenitor Lawrence Richardson who immigrated into Virginia and then Maryland), Quaker aka Society of Friends (Babb, Hussey, Lewis, Mallonee, Mercer and Taylor families), Reformed Church (Stauffer and Strickler), and United Brethren (Humphrey families). Of course, if I could push back further than 1517, all of these families will become Catholic.
My recent (aka last six hundred years) maternal family roots seem to point to Dutch (i.e., Bradt, de la Montagne, Kool, Kortreght, Otsen, Swartwout, van Hamburg, Veldtman, Webber, and Westerkamp) and paternal lines are English (i.e., Barnard, Batchelder, Bozman, Burgess, Butler, Carman, Cope--one of my longest lines, but unproven--Deane, Dorsey, Downes, Fynney, Gill, Hall, Harrison, Hughes, Humphrey, Hussey, Kenyon, Marsh, Mayhave, Moon, Pedrick, Perkins, Pocock, Porter, Prigg, Pyle, Richardson, Smith, Standiford, Taliaferro, Taylor, Travis, Underwood, Withers, and Wood), Scotch (i.e., Frissell, Gass, Gray, Porter, Humphrey, Rickey, Stewart, Taylor, and Wallace), Irish (Crawford and Wallace), Germanic (i.e., Barr, Beck, Gucker, Haupt, Hirzing, Kiesel, Landes, Mayer, Pletcher, Schnell, Schweiss, Sporri, Stellwagen, Steinbrenner/ Stoneburner, Weber/Weaver, and Wolf), Swiss origins (i.e., Graf, Groff, Herr, Keller, Landes, Peter, Pletcher, Schmutz, Schnavely/Schnebele, Spörri, Stauffer, Stetler, Strickler, and Veitin) as well as Welsh (i.e., Bowen). Genetically speaking, the R1b1a2 (R-M269 or more specifically R-S1480) (note: 23andme says R-U152) subclade would have originated in Central Asia/South Central Siberia; and yes, I am related to King Tutankhamen. While the mtDNA Haplogroup K (K2a6; CRS: 16224C, 16311C, 16362C, and 16519C and 73G, 146C, 152C, 263G, and 315.1C) would suggest the Alps, Ireland, or the United Kingdom on that side. Furthermore, my K2a6 Haplogroup (meaning, my mother's maternal line) would mean distant origins of about 16,000 years ago in found in the North Caucasus, central and north-western Europe, so Ötzi is very a distant “cousin” since he is K1f.
My best DNA success stories are finding: 1) helping an adopted family member (i.e., my second cousin, once removed) find his birth mother within one hour of our DNA match, 2) finding a second cousin (Kinzel, 13 segments or 2.45% shared) on my mother’s side using 23andme’s Relative Finder; 3) a third cousin once removed (Manly, 3 segments or .81% shared) on my father’s side using 23andme’s Relative Finder; 4) finding one sixth cousin (an Armbruster on my mother’s side); 5) a seventh cousin (Bishop surname, also on my mother’s side) once removed; 6) a distant cousin using FTDNA’s Family Finder; 7) a fourth cousin once removed (another Bishop) without FamilyTreeDNA confirmation, although they wrote saying: “The two of you share a total of 31.681079 cM spread over 14 segments and have a longest matching block of 3.716430 cM;” and lastly, 8) several statistically unlikely matches to 7th great grandparents such as my Swiss line via Herr! Finally, the modest amount of auDNA (about 0.10 percent) which points to Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry would suggest an eighth or ninth great grandparent, perhaps my Haupt line.
Most of my
family lines seem to be either farmers or preachers (including possibly the
Rev. Hans Herr, “full servant of the Word”); and, more recently:
·
Hugh Hughes had his land
surveyed in the early 1750s by young George Washington (S.C.C.) in Frederick
County, VA
·
Johann Nicholas Haupt helps
save the bells of Christ Church in Philadelphia in
September 1777!
·
Wilkes B. Richardson was born
in 1768 on Carroll’s Manor in MD aka Clynmalira
·
Vinson E. Richardson, my great
grandfather patented a rag
rug looper in 1902
·
John Weaver, my great-great
grandfather was briefly held hostage by the Confederate General Morgan
·
William D. Mercer, my
great-great grandfather served in the Civil War as a minister (to see what he
would have worn as headgear)
·
Vinson Richardson, my 3rd
great grandfather, sent his children away to be safe during his service in the
War of 1812
·
Robert Gray, my 3rd
great grandfather became embroiled in a marriage
dispute and appealed it to the Ohio Supreme Court
·
Johannes Bankes, my fourth
great-grandfather, died by drowning in the Muskingum River in 1827 (no body was
ever recovered) and
·
Edward Bozman, my fourth
great-grandfather stole a handmade shirt
and was transported to America in 1741!
·
Robert Mercer accidentally
shot a neighbor and I am writing an article about his legal case
·
And, finally, I am awaiting my
$2,000,000 from the turn of the previous century’s House Heirs Association
scam!
In January
2017, I finally proved my first American Patriot, Johann Adam BARR (1761-1833), a
17-year-old First Lieutenant for the Fourth Company of the Second Battalion in
Pennsylvania in April 1778. His father,
Jacob Barr, is also a Patriot but proving it revolves around his son’s 1761 baptismal
record. And, in addition, I am still
working on my Rickey line for a SAR supplemental (I did prove his service in
the French and Indian Wars as a batteau commander alongside the Black Watch,
and along the way, I had to research the Old
Rickey Family Cemetery in Wells Township, Jefferson County, Ohio, which may
have existed from 1825-1969 and his Presbyterian
Church memberships in NJ, PA, and Ohio and had to sort out the early
Presbyterian congregations in Jefferson County, OH. If my latest research pans out, I may have
more than sixty patriots, but I’ve only proven four (as of March 2024). Time will tell…
Being an eighth-generation Ohioan, I was inducted into the OGS’ “First Families in Ohio” in the spring of 2016 based on my paternal third great grandparents, Aaron and Lucy Stewart Hughes as well as my second great grandfather, William Hughes, who was born in Ohio about 1806. And, my Rickey family has been in Ohio prior to 1803 (and I was inducted into First Families of Ohio on this line in Spring 2018) and into the First Families of Pennsylvania, since John Rickey was in the Colony at least since 1779.
Perhaps my very distant
cousin, Alexander McCall Smith said it best: I am “of very obscure origins from
some dim and undistinguished town in a potato-growing area somewhere.”
·
My Richardson
Family Tree, autobiography
of John V. Richardson Sr. (1918-2009)
·
Hope S. Richardson, The
Song I Sing (ITA Press, 2014)—whose IS church papers have been donated to
Pepperdine University (in late 2019)
·
Die
Weber Familie: The Weber,
Wollenschläger, Habermann, and Kempf Families in Early 19th Century
Palatine Germany, Brazil, and the United States of America (available December 2019)
Before 1200, most folks answered to a single given name; many surnames emerged from occupational activities. So, Richardson, literally, is a patronymic, "son of Richard." Probably part of the wave of European immigration after the Norman Conquest of William the Conqueror, which overran Saxon England in 1066. I have my paternal line documented back to a Lawrence Richardson (Abt 1606-1666) in Taunton, Somerset County, England, although most Richardsons can be found in Yorkshire. Further back, the name comes from an Old German name 'Ricard' meaning powerful or brave ruler or chief; Latin filius Ricardi. In Scotland, the Richardson "sept" belongs to the Buchanan (ancient, hunting, and modern) or the Ogilvie (ancient or hunting-for the fall season) clan (or family, dating from the 13th century). So, I should wear a kilt, I suppose; you know, originally, the more colors in the tartan meant the higher the rank of the person (i.e., one for a servant to seven for a chief). For the moment, I am serving as the Richardson Surname Administrator for FamilyTreeDNA.com. Consider getting tested; let’s see how closely we are related…
Some sources suggest that the family motto is: "Pretio Prudentia Praestat" which is translated by Nathaniel Holmes Morrison in an expressive form "Longheadedness [i.e., wise] is above price." Personally, I think that I prefer "In adversity, faith; in triumph, humility"--in triumphus, humilitas; in adversum, fides....My latest research, however, says that "The arms of the Richardsons [in Maryland] are those of the Richardsons of 'Rich Hill.' Crest a dexter arm, erect, coupled below the elbow, holding a dagger in the hand. Motto: 'Pro Deo et Rege [For God and King]'." See also Encyclopaedia Heraldica.
1st Gen |
2nd
Gen |
3rd
Gen |
4th
Gen |
5th
Gen |
6th
Gen |
7th
Gen |
8th
Gen |
9th
Gen |
10th
Gen |
11th
Gen |
12th
Gen |
13th
Gen |
You |
Your Parents |
Grand Parents |
Great GP |
2nd Great |
3rd Great |
4th Great |
5th Great |
6th Great |
7th
Great GP |
8th
Great GP |
9th
Great GP |
10th Great GP |
1 |
2 |
4 |
8 |
16 |
32 |
64 |
128 |
256 |
512 |
1024 |
2048 |
4096 |
Totals |
3 |
6 |
12 |
24 |
48 |
96 |
192 |
384 |
768 |
1536 |
3072 |
6144 |
Percentage |
50% |
25% |
12.5% |
6.25% |
3.125% |
1.5625% |
.78125% |
.3906% |
.1953% |
.0976% |
.0488% |
.0244% |
Revised: 1 March 2024; created: 10 August 2012.