About us
Results of DNA testing
The last issue of the Newsletter stated:
DNA research on a few volunteers, who are descendants of the ancestor Laurent and some who are descendants of Pierre and Jean, will enable us to answer, we hope, certain questions about the origins of the Levasseurs.
- Is Laurent a relative of Pierre and Jean Levasseur? Are Pierre and Jean Levasseur related to Laurent?
- By what migration did Laurent and Pierre’s ancestors pass? Is the origin Africa (M-168)? Did they come directly from Africa to France or did they pass by Asia, the Scandinavian countries, Celtic Countries or Palestine?
These tests will determine the genetic signatures of the Levasseurs and the Levavasseurs.
Since this project is carried out in association with France, we may eventually compare our results with those of Levasseurs from France. We suspect that there are many groups of Levasseurs in France.
Three persons of the Pierre Levasseur lineage participated in this research. They are Roger Levasseur, our president, Paul Levasseur, our treasurer and I, Gilles Carmel, pass president.
The three Levasseurs from the Laurent lineage, participating in the research, were Patrick Levasseur, husband of Marie-Noëlle, our secretary, Jean-Pierre Levasseur, our webmaster and William Levasseur.
We are now able to answer certain of these questions:
Prior to proceeding I would like to mention the precious collaboration we received from Mr. Jacques Beaugrand.
Never would I have been able to decipher these test results without his valuable help. Jacques is a scientific retired researcher and is the Francophone President of the project: ''Project ADN d'Héritage Français''.
For more information, visit his web site at: http://beaugrandjacques.ca
Pierre Levasseur’s descendants are of the Haplogroup «I» Gilles passed a further test (deap-clade) in order to determine more precisely our origins. Since our result is significantly remote from the modal «I», it was decided that one of the three would pass the deap-clade test. Gilles’s result «I1d1» is applicable to Roger and Paul.
A first conclusion can be drawn from this result. Certain Carmels are descendants of Pierre Levasseur. Pierre Levasseur, (son of Pierre Levasseur dit l’Espérance and his wife, Jeanne Chaverlange), is the common ancestor of Roger Paul and I (Gilles Carmel). This Pierre was born in Québec on April 30, 1661. He was married to Anne Mesnage. Together they had, amongst others, a son, Denis-Joseph, (ancestor to Paul and Roger) and another son, Pierre-Jacques Levasseur/Carmel, my ancestor, (Gilles Carmel).
Laurent’s descendants are of the haplogroup «R». More specifically they are R1B1B2a1b5 (L21). The 1b5 is Jean-Pierre’s final result of his deap-clade test. On Mr. Beaugrand’s advice, responsible for the French heritage, FTDNA project, we will proceed to a deap-clade test for all participants of Laurent’s descendants. Effectively, the two signatures, R1B1B2 are tied to the WAHM (Western Atlantic Haplotype modal), the ancestor to all the R1B1 of Occidental Europe. To dispel all doubts we must conduct a deap-clade test on all Laurent’s descendants.
Jean-Pierre and Patrick have a similar result. Between William, Jean-Pierre and Patrick, on 37 markers there is a -1 distance. (36 on 37markers). This minor difference is the result of a mutation on marker number 2 one of William’s ancestor.
Regarding the question: Is Laurent related to Pierre and Jean Levasseur?
It is conclusive that descendants of Pierre and Laurent are not related. They are not of the same haplogroup.
By what migration did Laurent and Pierre’s ancestors pass? Is the origin Africa (M-168)? Did they come directly from Africa to France or did they pass by Asia, the Scandinavian countries, Celtic Countries or Palestine?
The deap-clade test enables us to answer this question in a general manner.
Pierre Levasseur :
His ancestors are probably from Northern France. Actually 18% of Normans are from the Haplogroup and deap clade test (I1D1). The Normans come from the Vikings. They initially colonized England and a part of Northern France.
I invite you to download and read the following document « Where Did European Men come From » by Kavi Wiik, published in the Journal of Genetic Genealogy.
http://www.jogg.info/41/Wiik.pdf
Laurent Levasseur :
Presently we have only Jean-Pierre’s test results.
Mr. Jacques Beaugrand informs us that the concerned regions, R-L21 (R1b12a1b5), are British, Iris hand possibly from Northern France. This group is also found in Germany (Saxon region) and Scandinavia but rarely in Iberia or in Italy.
Readers are invited to consult the International Society of Genetic Genealogy’s (ISOGG) Web Site for more information. This site is updated on a regular basis. As new test results become available, new sub-groups are added. Previous tables published by Gilles in the December Newsletter have been modified due to the availability of new test results creating new sub-groups.
http://www.isogg.org/tree/index.html
3- These test will determine the genetic signatures of the Levasseurs and the Levavasseurs.
The FTDNA data bank does not have, presently, DNA test results of Levasseurs from France.
However, DNA test results on descendants of Pierre and Laurent Levasseur enable us to find similarities with other families.
This relationship with other families goes back to 24 generations or 1000 years. At that time, family names did not apply. The creation and application of family names in France date back to Louis XI by Royal Edict 1474. The process of recording family names started in the Xth century for nobles. In the XIIth century it was applied for the general population.
In 1474, Louis XI forbade changing a family name without royal assent.
In 1539, François Ist promulgated the ruling «Villers-Cotterêts». This ruling made it obligatory to maintain civil state registers. This task was assigned to priest, the clergy then constituted the only effective «administration» available within the Kingdom. Actually this royal decision made official and generalized a practice that was in effect for the past century, mainly in cities.
For more information on family names consult:
1. http://www.geopatronyme.com/cdip/originenom/originenomsfran.htm#orglatin
2. http://www.geopatronyme.com/cdip/originenom/originedesnoms.htm
Vavasseur (vassal from vassal) altered by certain to : Levasseur,Vasseur, Vasseur, Vassor, Lavassor, Carmel, Carmell, etc.
Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) advises us of similarities with Pierre and Laurent’s descendants. In addition we are notified by an alert E-Mail of new «matches» as they are discovered. Latest results obtained:
For Pierre Levasseur’s descendants:
- The Chisholm families (Scottish clan) Have many ties with us. Many Chisholm have a result of 25 markers with a -1 distance and of 25 markers with a -2 distance. One Chisholm has a result of 37markers with a -4 distance.
- The Hamby family also has many similarities with a member having also 37 markers with a -4 distance.
- The FTDNA table below (see table 1) illustrates the possibility of having a common ancestor. There is a 97.17% chance that this ancestor is common (24 generations ago), that is more or less 1000 years ago with Pierre Levasseur’s descendants.
- Pierre’s descendants have similarities with Finnish and Russian families. In the United States there are, Dusseaus and Petits (Little) that are also very close.
- Therefore, Vavasseur and Levasseur probably started between 1100 and 1474. That is why we will find related or closely related families having other family names but having a DNA that is identical or has many similarities.
For Laurent Levasseur descendants:
Also the Shelton, Liedebrand, Wilbanks & Allen families are related with Laurent’s descendants. Some of these families come from the Saxons in Germany. There is also a possibility that they are of Viking descent.
One Shelton member has 37 markers with a -4 distance with descendants of Laurent Levasseur. The FTDNA figures 99.22% probability that at the 24th generation there is a common ancestor for descendants of Laurent and this Shelton (see table 2 below).
Here are the first results of our DNA study. We will keep you informed as new data becomes available.
For more information. visit our website : www.levasseur.org and have a look to the 120,000 registrants database.
Gilles Carmel