David, Thanks for the url, that was very interesting. Candace At 08:16 PM 8/17/2005 -0400, David C. Richardson wrote >It is from the germanic Ricard (sp?) try looking up google for something >like >Origin of names" > > also see >http://dcrichardson.home.mindspring.com//histRMA.htm

Just thought I'd add my two cents in here... Since we are discussing adding the suffix "-son" onto names, I thought I might add that not all "Richard-sons" are related. When people did begin adopting surnames about 30 generations ago, the just picked one at random. Also, in some cases, their father's name might have been John, or Richard, or David, or Lars (Norway), and they just added on "-son". One way to get around this barrier is to use the DNA testing. It is really great. I don't know if there is one that is really up and running, but for instance, to test the Richardson line, the tester must be a male with the last name Richardson. The test matches markers and other scientifical information (I never have been good at science, so you'll pardon my 'elaborate' terms here) to determine which groups of Richardsons are closely related. As I said, this goes back to about 30 generations before us. Do we have a Richardson DNA spokesperson or moderator that's subscribed to the list?...... Justin Richardson descendant of Barnett Richardson of VA, NC, and TN __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com