Stephen Clark Richmond - 52 Ancestors # 2

Stephen Clark Richmond was born between 1800 and 1810¹ whereabouts unknown. The first documentation I have found for him is the bond filed at the county court in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana.

This bond is for his marriage to Jane Milburn widow Southerland and was filed 1 Jun 1833². He signed this document S Clark Richmond.

They apparently married the same day³ although the marriage record itself was not found by the staff when I visited the courthouse. Next time I go, I will try to get it again.

Clark and Jane have 2 apparent children. Louisiana, born about 1834, and Charles N, born between 2 Jun 1837 and 1 Jun 1838. Jane also has a daughter, Elizabeth Antoinette, from her marriage to Elijah Sutherland.

Clark Richman is in the 1840 census with 1 male less than 5 (probably Charles N Richmond), 1 male 30-39 (Clark himself), 1 female 5-10 (probably Louisiana Richmond), 1 female 10-15 (probably Elizabeth Sutherland) and 1 female 30-39 (his wife Jane)¹. This is the last record I have for him. No land records were found for him in the St. Landry conveyances and no probate or succession record has be found.

I believe he died between Jun 1840 and Jan 1846 when Jane Milburn widow Richmond married Edward Winkler⁴.

In the 1830 U.S. Federal Census, I identified 127 Richmond/Richman households that had at least 1 male age 20-29 that could have been Clark Richmond. Using the Y-dna results from my father-in-law, whose haplogroup is currently defined as R-DF89, I B-listed 62 of these as being descendants of John Richmond (1594-1664)⁵ whose descendants seem to be haplogroup I-M253⁶. This leaves me with 65 households that I need to research. It is still possible that Clark is a descendant of John Richmond but it would have to be through a daughter and out of wedlock. It is also possible that Clark is not living in a Richmond household but with some other family. I hope not because I do not want to investigate 65 households and come up empty.

Y-dna has not yielded any matches that are close enough to trace yet. None of the other Richmond's who have tested are even a 12 marker match. Autosomal dna has also not revealed any secrets yet either. Unknown cousins who are from the same family would be at least 4th cousins which means they will not share a lot of dna and quite likely none.

I need to make another visit to the parish court house in Opelousas!

1. 1840 U.S. census, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, Opelousas, p. 251 (stamped), line 21, Clark Richman; digital images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 6 Jul 2011); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm M704, roll 128.
2. St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, Marriages # 48, Richmond-Milburn widow Sutherland, 1833; St. Landry Parish Courthouse, Opelousas
3. Rev. Donald J. Hebert, Southwest Louisiana Records Church and Civil Records, 41 (Cecilia, Louisiana: Hebert Publications, 1976.), vol. 3 (1831-1840): p. 553
4. St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, Marriage #294, Winkler-Milburn widow Richmond, 1846; St. Landry Parish Courthouse, Opelousas.
5. Joshua Bailey Richmond, The Richmond Family 1594-1896 and Pre-American Ancestors 1040-1594  (Boston, MA: Joshua Richmond Bailey, 1897); Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/richmondfamily1500rich, digitized 2015. 
6. RichmondAdmin, WorldFamilies.net, The Richmond DNA Project (https://www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/richmond); y-results.