Payzant Name Study

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]
Surnames/tags: Payzant Paisant Paysant

About the Project

The Payzant Name Study project serves as a collaborative platform to collect information on the Payzant name. The hope is that other researchers like you will join the study to help make it a valuable reference point for other genealogists who are researching or have an interest in the Payzant name.

In North America, it appears that all Payzants connect to a single immigrant family, that of Louis Payzant, who left Caen, Normandie, after the death of his first wife for the Isle of Jersey as a Huguenot refugee. At Jersey he remarried and with his new family set sail for Nova Scotia in 1753.

It is certain that Louis Payzant was the son of Antoine Paisant of Caen, and their lineage can be traced back to Guillaume Paisant of Beauville, near Caen, Normandy.

Sophronyme Beaujour, in "Généalogie de la famille Paisant ", notes that "The survey of [Huguenot church] registers found at Bostaquet, the oldest of which dates back to 1560, notes, during the last forty years of the 16th century, the existence of fourteen of these [Paisant] families...". He was unable to establish the relationships (if any) between these 14 families, one of which was that of Guillaume Paisant of Beauville.

Some Huguenot Paisant/Payzant families went to England or Ireland, notably the brothers James and Louis Payzant, and two of the children of Louis Payzant's first marriage. These lines are incomplete so far and need attention.

As a One Name Study, this project is not limited to persons who are related biologically. Individual studies can be used to branch out the research into specific methods and areas of interest, such as geographically (French Paisants, North American Payzants, etc.), by time period (18th Century Payzants), or by topic (Payzant DNA, Payzant Occupations, Payzant Statistics). These studies may also include a number of family branches which have no immediate link with each other. Some researchers may even be motivated to go beyond the profile identification and research stage to compile fully sourced, single-family histories of some of the families they discover through this name study project.

Also see the related surnames and surname variants.

How to Join

To join the Payzant Name Study, first start out by browsing our current research pages to see if there is a specific study ongoing that fits your interests. If so, feel free to add your name to the Membership list below, post an introduction comment on the specific team page, and then dive right in! Everyone is welcome.

If a research page does not yet exist for your particular area of interest, please contact the Name Study Coordinator: Andrew Payzant for assistance.

Once you are ready to go, you can also show your project affiliation with the ONS Member Sticker:

Research Pages

Here are some of the current research pages included in the study. I'll be working on them, and could use your help!

Some sources

• Payzant, Marion M (1970). “The Payzant and Allied Jess and Juhan Families in North America”. Wollaston, Mass.
• Layton, Linda G. (2003). “A Passion for Survival: The true story of Marie Anne and Louis Payzant in eighteenth-century Nova Scotia", Nimbus Publishing Ltd., Halifax.
• Duncanson, John V. (1965) "Falmouth: a New England Township in Nova Scotia"
• Brian C. Cuthbertson, ed. "The Journal of the Reverend John Payzant (1749-1834)", Hantsport, N.S.: Lancelot Press, 1981
• Kallal, Jeannine Sheldon,Compiler, Register of Qualified Huguenot Ancestors of The National Huguenot Society Fifth Edition, 2012, p. 382
• The registers of the Protestant Church at Caen (Normandy) : Vol. I , Edited C. E. Lart., 1908: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Protestant_church_at_Caen/7LwEAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover
• Beaujour, Sophronyme (1861), "Généalogie de la famille Paisant ", Caen: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5608561b
• Joubert, Paul, "Louis Paisant, religionnaire et fugitif", in Bulletin de la Societe des Antiquaires de Normandie, tome LVI, annees 1961-1962, pp.620-633 (1963)

Useful Resources

• Nova Scotia Historical Vital Statistics (Births, Marriages, and Deaths): https://www.novascotiagenealogy.com/
• Nova Scotia Public Archives - Census Records: https://archives.novascotia.ca/census/
• PAYZANT, Louis and Marie Anne Descendants: a Facebook group created by Betty Breaker Marcontell (and co-administered by Linda G Layton) with interesting documents posted: https://www.facebook.com/groups/132561111223/

Members

• Andrew Payzant

DNA Resources

Members who have tested and are willing to make their results public potentially provide a basis to crack some of the "brick walls" about the family. YDNA studies in particular could help track the male lineage of this family across hundreds of years. If you have tests available on any of the major sites (23andMe, Ancestry, FTDNA, GEDcom, etc.) please add your information here:

• Andrew Payzant

For anyone with surname Payzant or Paisant, there is a new FTDNA Payzant Paisant Family Project that you may wish to join: https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/payzant-paisant

Currently there are three members of this YDNA project: John R Payzant (Rev John Payzant line), and Andrew and Donald Payzant (both from the Louis Payzant line). The YDNA results are consistent with the known common male-line ancestry, and the haplogroup is currently designated as R-FTB6650. This is a fairly old haplogroup, branching off at about 350BCE, long before surnames were in use. As additional male Payzants test, we would expect to be assigned to a new and more recent branch.

Note that until French law allows DNA testing, we are unlikely to identify family members in France through DNA testing who share this line.

Related Surnames and Surname Variants

• Paisant
• Paysant
• Poysant
• Paysont

PAYZANT Genealogy Pages

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