Benoit Joseph
André Rigaud
Your namesake. André Rigaud was the leading military leader of the gens de couleur — the free people of color — during the Haitian Revolution. Trained as a goldsmith and educated in Bordeaux, he came home to fight for freedom in the South of Saint-Domingue.
Two of his own protégés — Alexandre Pétion and Jean-Pierre Boyer — went on to become Presidents of Haiti. He didn't just lead. He raised leaders.
From André in 1761 to you today is roughly eight generations — which makes him about your 6th-to-7th great-grandfather. Think about that: the word "great" stacked seven or eight times deep between his name and yours. A goldsmith's son who became a general, who raised two presidents, whose name got handed down — father to child, father to child — across two centuries and an ocean, until it landed on you. Same name. Same fight, new battlefield. (Estimate — we lock the exact count when you map your tree.)
🔎 Everything about André on the internet → 📖 André Rigaud — full history (Wikipedia)You carry the name. André carries the mission — with God, nothing shall be impossible.