Rich Family History

	Amy Hedrick's Family Research

My earliest known Rich is possibly a William Rich born about 1650 and died 30 November 1703 in Talbot Co., Maryland.  His wife was Elizabeth [last name unknown].  The source for this info was a Millennium File at Ancestry.com, so the validity of this information is not known.

The son of this couple was Joseph Rich born about 1680 in Maryland, and died 25 August 1757 in Chester Co., Pennsylvania.  His wife was Elizabeth Beeson, I believe this to be her married name, her maiden name is unknown to me.  Supposedly his will is on file there, and from that and Quaker records, we find the following children:

Next in line is John Rich born 13 April 1717, and his wife Sarah Frazier born 10 July 1725.  It is unknown to me if this is her correct maiden name, as I have not found a record stating it to be Frazier.

Together they had 10 children, the tenth one being Moses Rich born 6 June 1771, married to Amy Robbins who was born about 1772.  Moses married a second time to a Nancy Dougan.

Moses and Amy had 6 known children, the third child was Moses Rich born 29 January 1808.  He is my fourth great-grandfather.  His wife was Rebecca Sanders born 27 November 1812.

For a long time I was lead to believe that Rebecca Sanders was Cherokee, but from recent research efforts, I have found that this is not true, unless she was adopted by the Sanders family.  She and her family show up in Quaker Records for Ohio and Georgia.

The real trouble begins with Moses & Rebecca's children.  Birth dates for the children have been a confusing and daunting task to figure out. Many online resources, and church record resources have conflicting birth dates for all of the children. I believe Cyrena's birth date of 8 March 1839 to be correct. And Barbara's of 10 June 1840 as well.

Asenath and Sibby are another story. One date comes from church records, one from other family files, then yet another from tombstone dates. We may never know the real date.

General math needs to be applied here too, as many people who have these children, also have a Tibby Rich, who I don't believe exists. And this extra child makes some children born just a few months after another, which isn't humanly possible.

Here is a chart of each birth date found so far:

Moses Rich [b. 1808] remarried after Rebecca died to a Belinda Carter.  A few more children were born, and they supposedly moved to Iowa and Kansas.  They are found in the 1870 and 1880 census in Iowa.

The death dates for them, and their burial place is not confirmed.  Moses may have died 15 October 1896 according to "The American Friend", a Quaker publication listing deaths and obituaries of friends.  However, I am not sure that the obit for Moses Rich found in the 10 December 1896 edition is my 4th great-grandfather.

Cyrena Rich is my third great-grandmother, she married Elwood Healton and their daughter Viola Healton married Joseph Edwin Hanson.  They had one child before Viola died, Celesta Jane Hanson, who was my great grandmother.

Rich Message Board

RICH Surname Mailing List