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Richard Genealogy
Michel Richard dit Sansoucy of Acadia


Preface
Historical Narrative
Descendant Listings
Documentary Sources
Discussion Groups
Other Links


Preface

Many of the Richard families in Canada trace their ancestry to Michel Richard dit Sansoucy, who settled in Port-Royal, Acadia in the mid-1600s.This web site is intended to be a compendium of the research done on him and his descendants. Much has been published on this family in various historical books and family histories, some of it accurate, some not so accurate. As is often the case with family histories, once something is in print, it often is considered to be "gospel". It is my hope that this web site will facilitate a critical examination and discussion of the facts, legends, and myths surrounding this Richard family and to allow us Richard researchers and descendants to learn more about our origins and our relatives' contributions to early America. The best way to separate fact from fiction and to resolve conflicting information is to go back to the primary sources (see Documenting Your Genealogy Research - Guide to Citing Sources). These include records of marriages, births and baptisms, deaths and burials, census listings, Bible records, tax lists, probate and land records, etc. The information in the descendant listings on this web site will include documentation of the primary sources as much as possible, and transcriptions of many of those sources will be presented in links below. This is a working document and not necessarily definitive, since much of it is based upon information found on the Internet or in published secondary sources. It will be modified and (hopefully) improved as more researchers provide input and, most importantly, evidence.

My database currently includes 696 descendants, of whom 669 carry the Richard surname.

Historical Narrative

The land of Acadia was a originally a French colony in what is now Nova Scotia in Canada's Maritime Provinces. Since the initial settlement of Acadia by the French in 1604, control of the colony was contested by France and England, exchanging hands a number of times. England captured Acadia's capital of Port Royal (now Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia) in 1710 and the resulting Treaty of Utrecht (1713) put control of Acadia into the hands of the British. The descendants of the French settlers of Acadia (including the Richard family) remained there, living under British rule until most of them were deported in 1755 for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to Great Britain at the outset of the last of North America's French and Indian Wars (1756-1763). Some of the Acadians escaped deportation by fleeing westward into Quebec, into the backwoods of New Brunswick, or on the various islands of the region.

Michel Richard dit Sansoucy arrived in Acadia by the early 1650s, settling in Port-Royal. (Some say that he was a soldier under Emanuel Leborgne. Can anyone provide a primary source to support that?) Shortly after arriving (ca. 1656), he married Madeleine Blanchard (daughter of Jean Blanchard and Radegonde Lambert). They had 10 children: sons Rene, Pierre, Martin, and Alexandre, and daughters Catherine, Anne, Madeleine, Marie, Cecile, and Marguerite. The daughters married into the Brossard, Terriot, Babin, Vincent, Forest, and Leblanc families, respectively. After Madeleine Blanchard's death (sometime between 1678 and the early 1680s), Michel remarried to Jeanne Babin (daughter of Antoine Babin and Marie Mercier). Michel and Jeanne had two sons of their own: Michel and (another) Alexandre. Michel Richard dit Sansoucy died (probably in Port-Royal) between 1686 and 1693. His widow Jeanne Babin then remarried to Laurent Doucet. The Richard family lived along the Riviere-Dauphin on the right (southeast) bank upstream of Port-Royal.

Several of the children of Michel Richard and Madeleine Blanchard left Port-Royal (after his death) and moved to Grand-Pre in the Minas Basin (Baie-des-Mines). The descendants of Michel and his two wives remained (for the most part) in Acadia until the French settlers were expelled from that region by the English in the 1750s. While some of the Richard descendants later made their home in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, others settled in Quebec (primarily Nicolet County area), and some went much further abroad to Louisiana and even back to France.

Note: On this web site and in my records, I have chosen to omit the correct French accent marks (e.g., grave, acute, circumflex) since I am not fluent in the French language and am using an American English keyboard. My apologies go out to my French-Canadian cousins!


Descendant Listings

Here are listings of known descendants (through nine generations):

[Note: To view the Adobe Acrobat files, you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader software. This can be downloaded free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. You can download the files to your disk to view them, or use your web browser with the appropriate plug-ins.]

Children of Michel Richard dit Sansoucy & Madeleine Blanchard & Jeanne Babin

Descendants of Rene Richard (#1) & Madeleine Landry
Descendants of Pierre Richard (#2) & Marguerite Landry
Descendants of Catherine Richard (#3) & Francois Brossard
Descendants of Martin Richard (#4) & Marguerite Bourg
Descendants of Alexandre Richard (#5) & Elisabeth|Isabelle Petitpas
Descendants of Anne Richard (#6) & Germain Terriot
Descendants of Michel Richard (#B) & Agnes Bourgeois
Descendants of Alexandre Richard dit Bouti(n) (#C) & Marie Levron

GEDCOM (Richard, Generations 0-9)

Index of Names
Explanation of Format of Descendant Listings


Documentary Sources

Acadia & Canada Censuses:

Acadia

1861 New Brunswick
1871 New Brunswick
1881 New Brunswick
1891 New Brunswick
1901 New Brunswick
1911 New Brunswick

1851 Quebec
1861 Quebec

Acadia & Canada Notes (Vital Records, Wills, Deeds, Tax Lists, Cemeteries, etc.):

Beaubassin, Acadia
Grand-Pre, Acadia
Port-Royal, Acadia

New Brunswick
   Kent Co., New Brunswick

Quebec
   Nicolet Co., Quebec

USA Federal Censuses:

1870
1880
1900
1910
1920
1930
1940

USA Notes (Vital Records, Wills, Deeds, Tax Lists, Cemeteries, etc.):

Delaware
Massachusetts
New Jersey
World War 1 Draft Registrations


Discussion Groups

GenForum - Richard
RootsWeb - Richard


Other Links

French-Canadian & Acadian Genealogy Sources

The following research by George Richard should be of interest to those of you with Richard family in New Brunswick. Please contact George directly if you have any comments or questions.

My name is George Richard. As an amateur genealogical researcher I have been fortunate to have hardcopy and Internet sources of information to assist me in compiling various files (databases). The origin of this Index was a book given to me by my parents in the early 1980's entitled ''LA FAMILLE RICHARD OU NORD DU COMTE DE KENT'' which awakened my passion for genealogical research. The book covers a period between 1800 and 1900 for a half-dozen parishes in the northern part of Kent County, New Brunswick. The author of this book (Father D.O. Robichaud) invited readers interested in pursuing his work to do so. I undertook to do so by first preparing an index of all the names contained in his book (approximately 2,500). Then I began researching pre 1800 and post 1900 sources to expand the contents of his original work, while simultaneously expanding the Index, which now contains in excess of 13,000 names. I think the Index can be a useful source for researching Richard and Richard-related persons, not only from northern Kent County but for other counties as well. One feature of the Index is the ability to sort the data by column which enables one to discover the siblings of the listed persons. I have additional information for individuals and couples listed in the Index (specific dates and places of birth, marriage, and death) as well as anecdotal information for some. Anyone wanting additional information can email me at george-richard@videotron.ca.

Index - Richard Family of Northern Kent County, New Brunswick (.xlsx)
Index - Richard Family of Northern Kent County, New Brunswick (.htm)


If you find this information useful and would like to contribute a small (or bigger) amount to help fund this research, please consider selecting one of the options below. This helps me pay for subscriptions to web sites (e.g., Ancestry.com), reference materials (maps, books), supplies (paper, ink, binders, folders), time, and travel.

Amount to Contribute


If you would like to comment on any information contained within, or wish to correspond with me about this family, please send me an e-mail message at: contact@arslanmb.org. Additions and corrections are greatly appreciated. I am especially interested in receiving information obtained from primary sources (parish registers, census listings, Bibles, cemeteries, vital records, probate and land records, etc.) and photographs and digital images relating to this branch of the Richard family so that I can incorporate them into this page. Also, I would like to provide links to other pages on the Internet that deal with Richard genealogy.



Mark B. Arslan


Last updated on 25 October 2014