(Translated by Ernest J. RICH - USA - March 2000)

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History of a surname known since the 12th century in the whole Florival valley and more particularly in Linthal and Lautenbach.

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The surname RICH is very well represented throughout the Florival valley and more particularly in Linthal and in Lautenbach where the name is has been recorded there since the end of the twelfth century.

The original bearers (of the RICH name) in Orschwihr as well as in the village of Oberantzen are both very ancient but in the current state of research, no one has been able to link together all of the carriers of the name.

The name RICH is particulary present in Linthal, in the hamlet of Hoefen which consists today of the streets of Markstein and Petit-Paris

The surname could have originated from a soubriquet or nickname often translated in the Latin texts to ADIVES@ meaning wealthy or rich. The first carrier of the name therefore was a man who possessed a great fortune or someone who had a great heart.

But there exist other possible etymologies (for the name). RICH or REICH could come from ARICHO@ a diminutive of the baptismal name Richard; both (RICH and REICH) could equally be transformed into the surname (RICH).

RICH or REICH, which when taken as prefixes, both appear to indicate many of these names were derived from the bearer=s place of origin or localities where they had lived. We cite, for example, Richburg at Kirchberg, Reichenweier, the old form of Riquewihr or again, Riechenweiler, the old name of Richwiller.

Among the carriers of the name, we all recognize the humorist/actor and writer Claude RICH, born in the year 1929 in Strasbourg. The authors of different articles concerning him are not in agreement about his original lineage. Certain ones mention that the father of the humorist was a native of Wasselonne, others to the contrary, assert that he came from Vieux-Thann. Which is it?

The Historical and Biographical Dictionary of Switzerland contains an account about a family DIVES or DIVITIS, which translates into German as RICH or REICH

That middle-class family, mentioned in Frieburg at the beginning of the thirteenth century, carried a family crest Aof blue (or of black) upon which were pictured, at first, one and much later, three bold cocks of gold (or of silver) with their beaks open, legs apart, cockscombs and feathers extended.@

We also cite the existence of a family DIVES, who called themselves RICHO much later, in the Swiss canton of Solothurn during the Middle Ages.

The 24th of January of the year 1673, the abbot, Jean Michel Wurtzlin, blessed the marriage of Christian REICH and Marie ERNY in the church of Saint John the Baptist of Lautenbach. The two newlyweds were originally from Switzerland, the first from Entlebuch and the second from Schotz, both towns in the canton of Lucerne.

Several years later, a certain Joseph REICH, who himself was a native of the same canton, settled in Lautenbach where he married Salome TSCHAEN, a young woman living in the hamlet of Hoefen, a suburb of Linthal.

Many members of the RICH family intermarried with the local families during the 18th century, for example: WEIGEL, KOCH, SYREN and also SCHAFFHAUSER.

It is by consulting the inventories and wills of Lautenbach (research carried out by Antoine JENNY) that we have a better knowledge and understanding of this family and their everyday lives.

One such document (an inventory) was drawn up upon the death of Jean RICH in the year 1733. Jean was the former provost of Lautenbach and had married Catherine ACKERMANN with whom he had at least seven children.

The youngest of the children whose given names were Anne, Anne-Marie, Jean, Barbe, Madeleine, Francois Joseph and Ursule were still minors when their father died. For that reason they were represented by their tutor (or guardian), Mathieu RICH. The heirs were bequeathed many goods such as a house with a barn, a cattle shed and a kitchen garden located in Lautenbach, and in the upper part of that village another cattle shed and (root) cellar as well as several fields. The cattle consisted of two cows, a young ox, two goats, two pigs and two piglets.

The capital of the floral valley also harbored carriers of the RICH-REICH surname.

We cite Jean REICH, the son of Georges, citizen and lawyer of Orschwihr, who married in Guebwiller on November 24, 1701, Barbara LANGHANS, the widow of Francois JEHLEN, offspring of an old patrician family of the village. Jean died in 1724 leaving two orphans, Marguerite and Jean.

The author Roger BONNAUD-DELAMARE (ASwiss Immigration into the Principalities of Murbach and Lure after the Thirty Years War@) mentioned in several parts of his work people whose names were RICH who came to settle in Alsace and particularly in Guebwiller.

There is the case of Barbe and Anne REICH, who left Entlebuch to come and establish a family (in Alsace). The same applies to Anne RICH, native of Matzendorf (a canton of Solothurn) who married Jean Jacques WIBRECHT in the Church of St. Peter of Merxheim in the spring of the year 1657.

This family stock is appreciably more ancient than that of Lautenbach, which we have established as Swiss in origin.

In the opening entries in the parish registries of Orschwihr in the year 1642 the priest baptized a child born of the legitimate union of Pierre RICH and Gertrude KLEIN.

Hardly ten months later, another child named Georges, born of the same parents, received the sacrament of baptism.

During the same time period were born children whose parents, Thiebaud REICH and Madeleine ERNST, lived in the village but were married in Rouffach at the end of April, 1640.

Let us speak also of the presence of the family REICH VON ROTTENBURG, one of the noble families of the place who lived in the Castle of Orschwihr, but which are not linked to the surname we study here. The RICHes of Orschwihr are mentioned on several occasions in various authenticated documents, such as the protocols of Rouffach-Compagne studied by Andre GANTER and published in the BERGHA.

In November of 1652, a certain Claude GUILLIAN, a workman from Orschwihr, sold a barn to Pierre RICH, citizen of the same place.

In 1667, a marriage contract was written between unmarried Antoine KLECK of Gondolsheim and Marguerite, the daughter of Thiebaud REICH. The young husband pledged his future with a dowry or matrimonial gift (Morgangaab in German) in the form of land. Among the witnesses to this contract one finds Leonard ROMINGER, the mayor of Orschwihr.

Thiebaud WALTER, the historian of Rouffach, revealed in his APrincipal Sepulcres of Alsace@, the presence of the tombstone of Catherine RICH in the cemetery of Orschwihr.

The decedent, the spouse of HIGELIN was buried on March 10, 1764 at the age of 69 years. The mortuary registry of the parish confirmed the death of Catherine on March 9, after having been provided with the holy sacrament in church.

Representative of the RICH family of Orschwihr, established themselves in other localities within the Department of Alsace.

We note the marriage in Willer-sur-Thur in 1662 of Anne Marie RICH, the daughter of Georges, citizen of Orschwihr, with Claude GROSJEAN or the union of Antoine REICH of Soultzmat with Anne Marie DIETRICH in April, 1872 of the same place.

Research by Mrs. Marie-Jeanne FINGER on the RICH family of Oberantzen indicates that this family was originally Swiss.

In effect, Gaspard RICH settled there in 1706, the year in which he married Anne Marie BORDMANN. Their three children became founding families of this place.

The first son, Jean Gaspard in his first wedding married Marie BIELLMANN, afterward in the second wedding, married Anne Marie BUCHER

Francois Joseph, the second son, took for his wife Anne Marie WEISS, afterward Marie Anne SIEGRIST.

The third son, named Jean Jaques, married Marguerite SCHMITT and after her death Marguerite MULLER of Munwiller.

As to the frequently mentioned branch in Oberantzen, we point out the marriage in Rouffach in 1755 of Sebastien RICH, the son of Joseph, with Marie RISS, the daughter of a citizen of the capital of Haut-Mundat.

Among the numerous families of Upper Alsace, The RICHes participated in the American adventure and it is without doubt possible to find distant cousins of that family there.

Effectively, we find in the very useful directory of requests for passports to the new world, a work undertaken by Dominique DREYER, the presence of a number of RICHes. They were originally from Orschwihr, Lutter, Riespach and Ostheim. They departed for New York, Castroville and New Orleans