A. THE POTENTIAL OF GUITTARD-VARIATION TESTING

The Guittard Family History DNA Study welcomes Guittards of all spelling variations from all countries. This international volunteer Guittard family history investigation is designed primarily to trace Y-DNA profiles of different Guittard family direct paternal lines in France, America, Spain, Andorra, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, the British Isles, Belgium, and everywhere else back to their earliest detectable origins, and to find and either prove or disprove relationships between and within these family lines.

If you or your Guittard-surname male relative decides to test, you can FIND OUT AS SOON AS YOUR TEST IS PROCESSED whether you are related to --

FRANCOIS GUITARD, the young dragoon who escorted Robespierre to the guillotine during the French Revolution, and his enormous family of descendants in New Brunswick, or

their ancestor Guittards from Alsace in northeastern France, or

the Larodde Guittards of Puy de Dome, or

the Ponteix Guittards of Puy de Dome, or

the Toulouse Guittards in southern France, or

the Ruffec-source Guitards on the west central coast of France, or

the Guitarts of Spanish Catalonia,

the Guittars of St. Louis, or

the Alsatian Guittards' Bronze Age cousins whose skeletons from 3,000 years ago were found in the Lichtenstein Cave family burial chamber in north central Germany.

If we can obtain the tests we want in France, Spain, Scotland, and Ireland, you might find out whether you could be related --

to the knife-maker craftsmen Guittards of the famous 12TH-CENTURY GUITTARD FAMILY COMMUNE at Thiers in Puy de Dome,

or to VISCOUNT GUITARD OF BARCELONA in 966 AD,

or to PIRATE CAPTAIN LEWIS GUITTAR, who shot it out with the British Navy in 1700,

or to the PICT KING GARNOT III (GUITARD), who ruled 523-530 AD in Scotland. (Amusing footnote: Geoffrey of Monmouth in his fanciful HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF BRITAIN wrote that COMMANDER GUITARD OF THE PICTAVIANS in Gaul fought alongside the legendary KING ARTHUR at the Battle of Suesia.)

We now have Guittard/Guitard/Guittar/Guitart testers belonging to eight different subclades and living in five different countries, including France, Canada, Spain, Venezuela, and the United States. The umbrella surname Guittard is used on this website to include all similar and related spellings, such as Guitard, Guitar, Guittar, Guitart, and so on. Actually Guitard, Guitar and Guittar are all phonetically equivalent to Guittard since the "d" in Guittard is typically silent in French. Some Guittard researchers find their own family name spelled three or more different ways in the old records.

B.  HOW TO GET STARTED WITH DNA TESTING

The Y-DNA test for Guittard-surname males, swabbing the inside of the cheek, is EASY and QUICK -- two swabs at 60 seconds each. No blood is involved.  No medical or other information is recorded or obtained. The testkit comes in the mail to the tester's home and is returned by mail after completion of the swabs. To order a testkit, use the Join button above and follow the sequence. 

Y-DNA testing measures specific characteristcs on the male tester's Y-chromosome -- markers passed down on the direct paternal line from a father to his son, to his son, to his son, etc., with relatively few changes or mutations over the centuries. These genealogical markers usually (but not always) follow the surname back through the generations many hundreds of years ago to the time in history when surnames were first generally adopted, and then continue to follow the genetic profile back through the Middle Ages and beyond. A second test is recommended to confirm and verify each line back to the Most Recent Common Ancestor and to preclude a possible DNA sidetrack from the expected paternal line due to an unrecorded adoption, name change, friendly neighbor, or research mistake.

A Y-DNA test of any number of markers is welcome and can always be upgraded later - sometimes without a new swab if enough material is still on file from earlier test swabs.  But we strongly recommend tests of at least 37 markers in order to avoid false positive matches, which are very common with 12m tests and fairly common with 25m tests.  Tests of 67 or 111 markers are recommended as progressively more accurate and detailed for long-range tracing and use of TiP Report comparisons.  

Female Guittard descendants and male Guittard descendants not having the Guittard surname can readily participate and advance the study by encouraging their Guittard-surname brothers, cousins or other relatives to submit a Y-DNA test representing their common Guittard line.  Also, any Guittard descendant -- including females and non-Guittard-surname males -- can participate by doing the Family Finder (FF) test.  It's a great bang for the buck.  Its remarkable technology uses at-DNA to search for matches on all the ancestor-surname lines on both sides of the tester's family and for matching ancestor-union profile blocks, reaching back typically around 6-7+ generations, subject to random recombination and reduction of blocks each generation.    


Each immigrant Guittard line from France to anywhere else represents an interesting snapshot of Guittard DNA coming down from France at the time of departure and place of residence in France. Consequently, the first major objective of our tracing program is to collect tests representing the various principal Guittard lines immigrating from France to America, including the lines coming down from the following immigrant patriarchs:

1. ALSATIAN FARMER JOSEPH GUITTARD (1798 FR - 1872 OH), immigrated in 1851 from BRECHAUMONT, Haut-Rhin, Alsace, on the northeast corner of France to Stark Co., Ohio, with his wife Catherine Genereuse Gevrier (1793 FR - 1883 OH). (This line traces back to Jean Guittard, who was born in 1614, and died in 1706 at BELLEMAGNY, Haut-Rhin, Alsace, about a mile north of BRECHAUMONT, 75 miles west of the German border, and 75 miles northwest of Basel, Switzerland.) During a period of bad weather, poor crops and hard times in Alsace, Joseph sent his oldest son Francis Joseph and oldest daughter Marie Catherine ahead to America. In 1851, Joseph sailed from LeHavre to New York City on the Carioca with his wife and two other children, Francois Xavier and Rosine Philomene, and then traveled along the Erie Canal to settle and farm in Ohio. Later family elements moved to Texas, California, and the Philippine Islands.

32 Guittards were listed on the 1930 US census, which is the most recent available. 1,149 Guittards have telephone listings now in France, making Guittard the second most common Guittard-variation surname in France's population of about 60,000,000.

2. CANADIAN PATRIARCH FRANCOIS GUITARD (c.1774 - c. 1871) (The Old Dragoon), emigrated from Fauxbourg, Saint-Antoine, Paris, France, and eventually settled in Belledune, New Brunswick, Canada. Francois served on the military detail of dragoons that CONDUCTED ROBESPIERRE TO THE GUILLOTINE 27 July 1794 during the French Revolution. Later he FOUGHT UNDER NAPOLEON at the famous battles of Lodi in 1796, the Pyramids in 1798, and Marengo in 1800. Around 1801 Francois changed to the British side and took the oath of allegiance to the British government. The change may have been due to difficulties in having his wife's protestantism accepted in France. He served 14 years thereafter as a navigator on a British frigate and helped map New Brunswick.

Francois moved to Canada around 1806, settling in Riviere-Ouelle, Quebec, with his wife Marie LeFiliatre, and showing various births in the parish registers between 1807 and 1814. Francois pioneered at Belledune in New Brunswick, where he settled at Big Dune ca. 1815, and petitioned for a land grant in 1825. Living to at least 97 years of age, Francois with his wife Marie founded the largest Canadian line of Guitards with four sons and seven daughters. (A New Brunswick descendant of patriarch Francois Guitard reports that Francois actually signed his land-grant application by spelling his name with a double-t, and that the spelling change to a single-t came later.)

Thanks largely to Francois and Marie, the Guitards are by far the largest Guittard-variation surname family both in America generally and in Canada. 886 Guitards are listed in the Yahoo Canada phonebook, versus the next highest total of 96 for Guitar. In France the Guitards are also the largest Guittard-variation surname family with 1,206 current telphone listings. In the US, Guitard has the second highest total of phone numbers at 117, versus 127 for Guitar. In 1930 there were 83 Guitards on the US census.

3. BURGUNDY-SAN-FRANCISCO CHOCOLATIER ETIENNE GUITTARD (c. 1838 - 1899), was born in Burgundy north of Thiers, like his parents. He reportedly traveled from Lyon in east central France to California in 1860. At age 22 Etienne arrived in San Francisco during the Gold Rush, and tried to find gold in the Sierras, but found none. After a trip back to France, he returned in 1868 with Henriette and used knowledge and materials from his uncle's chocolate factory in France to establish a factory in San Francisco that continues to make excellent chocolate today. Some sources state the Guittard family name first appeared in medieval records in the eleventh century in Burgundy -- the province where the San Francisco Guittards were living before they immigrated. A test on this line would be useful in tracing possible connections between our important French and American Guittard family lines.

4. BORDEAUX-MISSOURI PIONEER JOHN GUITAR (1794 - 1848), immigrated from the Agen, Bordeaux area on the Garonne River in Guienne province of southwestern France in 1819 to New York at age 25. (His French family of Guitars are reported to have been called "de Guitar" during earlier times.) He stayed two years in New York, and eventually settled in Columbia, Boone Co., MO by 1827. Family elements moved later to Carroll Co., MO, and still later to other states. John and his wife Emily Gordon had nine children, including three sons -- Odon, John and David Gordon -- and six daughters -- Kate, Mary Jane, Elizabeth Justeen, Mariah Louise, and Emily Amelia. A test on this line is needed to determine whether it is related to our Saintonge-Montreal tester tracing back to the west central coast region of La Rochelle to the north, or to our two Puy de Dome Guittard testers to the northeast, or to our Toulouse Guittard tester in southern France about 70 miles up the Garonne River from Agen, or to our Guitart tester farther south in Spanish Catalonia.

The Guitars may now be the largest Guittard-variation surname family in the US, having 130 persons on the 1930 US census. 127 Guitars are now listed in the US phonebook, versus the next highest Guitards with 117. Interestingly, around the same time Guitar numbers were increasing in the US, they were decreasing in France with 2 Guitar births in 1891-1915, only 1 in 1916-1940, and none in the next fifty years. See prenoms.com.

5. ALSACE-KANSAS PIONEER GEORGE GUITTARD (c. 1800 Bellemagny, Haut-Rhin -- 1881 Marshall Co. KS) immigrated to America in 1833 from BELLEMAGNY, Alsace, and eventually settled by 1857 in Marshall Co., Kansas. George had come from an old Alsace family, where the family heads had been magistrates for years. George himself served as a drummer boy with Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. After a dreadful voyage of 103 days at sea, George arrived with his family at Baltimore, where his mother and young son Francis soon died from the effects of the voyage. George worked in factories in Philadelphia, New York and Newark and started a factory of his own. Attracted by stories of land in the West, in 1857 George and his family traveled by rail, boat and ox-drawn wagon to pioneer on Vermillion Creek in Marshall Co., Kansas at a spot that became Guittard Station. There he served as trusted agent and station-keeper for Ben Holladay's Overland Stage line for many years and also for the Pony Express during its short period of operation from 1860-1861. As inn-keeper George was host to an extraordinary procession of famous people traveling to and from the West -- including Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickcock, Jim Bridger, Sir Henry Francis Burton, Mark Twain, and many others on their way to California. George and his wife Magdalena Thomann had three surviving sons -- George Jr., Joseph, and Xavier. A test is needed on this line, and we anticipate it would most likely match the Alsace-Ohio line, which also came from Bellemagny.

6. QUEBEC-ST.LOUIS EARLY PIONEER PAUL VINCENT GUITARD (c. 1726 Quebec -- aft. 1776 St. Louis, now MO), earliest known patriarch of the Quebec-St. Louis line of Guitards/Guittars, was reportedly born in Lac de Deux Montagnes, Quebec. Paul is the earliest Guittard born in America known to the administrator, and his parents may have been the immigrant ancestors. Family oral tradition suggests this line came from Alsace originally, and lived later in Quebec or Montreal before moving to St. Louis. Paul married ANGELIQUE LAPOINTE, born c. 1728 in Quebec (or possibly Ste. Genevieve, Post Vincennes). They may have moved to St. Louis c. 1772, where they were among the earliest settlers. Paul, farmer, Quebec, and wife Angelique were listed on the 1776 census documents with various children. Also listed was a possible brother Pierre Joseph Guitard, 39, trader, Quebec. Some descendants in St. Louis spelled their name Guittar. One descendant may have been Francis Guittar, an American Fur Co. agent born in St. Louis of French-Canadian stock, who visited the Council Bluffs area by keel boat in Iowa in 1825 and camped at the bottom of the Bluffs in 1827 as an early settler. Our Guittar reportedly tracing back on this line has tested R1b1b2 on 67-marker results. Another test tracing down from this line is needed to verify the profile.

7. SAINTONGE-MONTREAL IMMIGRANT ANCESTOR JOSEPH-JEAN GUITARD (GUITAR) DIT LAGRANDEUR (1697 FR - 1752 CAN), was born in 1697 on the west central coast of France near Saintes in the Diocese of the Saintes (now of La Rochelle), Saintonge (now in the Department of Charente-Maritime). Joseph-Jean's parents were JEAN GUITAR (GUITARD) DIT LAGRANDEUR, born about 1660 in the Diocese of the Saintes, and Jeanne Dionnet Guionet (Guyonnet). Joseph-Jean reportedly immigrated to Canada as a soldier before 1732. He married Marie Ann Meloche in 1732 at Sts-Anges, Lachine, Ile de Montreal, Quebec, raised a family, and died in 1752 in Ste. Genevieve de Pierrefonds, Ile de Montreal. Joseph-Jean and Marie had one son, JOSEPH GUITAR DIT LAGRANDEUR, and two daughters, Francoise and Marie-Suzanne, who was born 1738/39 in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, and married Gabriel Albert Lalande-Latreille-Mauger in 1759 in Ste. Genevieve de Pierrefonds. Our Guitard tester's direct ancestor Joseph Guitard on this line was killed on 18 Dec 1837 at age 26 by the British redcoats during the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837 at the Battle of Saint Eustache, Quebec -- one of eleven Patriots who died that day fighting for French Canadian liberty. A second test is needed on this line to verify the profile.

Charles d'Hozier stated in ARMORIAL GENERAL OF FRANCE around 1697, "This [DE GUITARD] family seems to be originating from the vicinity of Ruffec," a town only 50 miles northeast of Joseph-Jean Guitard's home near Saintes. D'Hozier went on to say this DE GUITARD family divided into several branches, which spread into four old provinces in the region of Saintes --
i. Saintonge (now department Charente-Maritime on the west central coast around La Rochelle),
ii. Angoumois (now department Charente, its capital Angouleme being only 50 miles east from Saintes),
iii. Limousin (now department Haute Vienne, its capital Limoges being 100 miles east from Saintes, plus departments Creuse and Correge), and
iv. Nivernais (now department Nievre in Burgundy, its capital Nivers being 200 miles northeast of Saintes).

These four old Guitard-branch, Ruffec-source provinces were located in a rough triangle from La Rochelle on the west central coast, east through Angoumois to Limousin on the west side of Puy de Dome, and then north to Burgundy on the northwest side of Puy de Dome.

We hope our Guitard test tracing back to Saintonge will help us investigate whether d'Hozier's statements on the four Ruffec-source Guitard branches were correct. We also note that the fourth Guitard branch in the old province of Nivernais was in Burgundy on its west side. We wonder whether future tests will verify that this same extended Guitard family spreading out of Ruffec (our Saintonge test), is related to the Guitards of Andorra and Spanish Catalonia (our Guitart test) , or to the Burgundy Guittards, such as the Burgundy-San-Francisco line, or to the Guitars (de Guitars) of the Bordeaux-Missouri line.

All other Guittard (and related spelling) lines are also cordially invited to test and participate, and will be identified as our study information develops. The 1930 US census showed 52 Guittars, 15 Guiters, and 5 Guitters.

Guittard researchers have at least three advantages in tracing these lines. (1) The Guittard surname variations are quite distinctive in spelling. (2) The numbers of Guittards are comparatively small and manageable. (3) Old historical records mention Guittards dating back to the 1100's in Puy de Dome, to the 1000's in Alsace, Burgundy, and Andorra, to 941 AD in Catalonia, and to 523 AD in Scotland, indicating that the distinctive Guittard name was adopted in different spellings perhaps hundreds of years earlier than surnames generally. These factors make our Guittard surname study a unique opportunity for Y-DNA family history investigation.

D. COLLECTION OF TESTS FROM GUITTARD LINES IN FRANCE

The second major objective of this study is to collect tests representing the various principal Guittard lines in France from THIERS, Burgundy, Alsace, Bordeaux, Aveyron, Haute de Vienne, Pyrenees Orientales, Gard, and other places. Our plan is to identify the different major Guittard lines that produced the widely dispersed Guittards now in France by using early census data, birth data and other sources, and to obtain tests from each of the major lines for comparison.

So far in France, we have identified five major Guittard groups and four major Guitard groups plus Guiter, Guitter, Quittard, Quitard, and Gittard groups. We have done so by reviewing the number of births in France for Guittard-variation surnames to see in what areas the births have concentrated for each surname in the period 1891-1915 and more recent periods. See prenoms.com. We assume that Guittard births generally reflect and vary with Guittard populations for the same period. As expected, the geographic concentrations of Guittard births in more recent periods can be seen developing from earlier periods, as families grow up and their children generally stay and raise their families in the same vicinity, and sometimes spread out from the early center to adjacent departments. (The test locations starred below are the highest priority tests on our wishlist, which we believe should produce maximum information on the maximum number of Guittard families.)

FOR GUITTARD BIRTHS IN 1891-1915 (total 778 in France), THE HIGHEST CONCENTRATION OF BIRTHS BY FAR IS FOUND AROUND *PUY DE DOME (129) WHERE THE HISTORIC 12TH-CENTURY GUITTARD FAMILY COMMUNE AT THIERS WAS LOCATED. Other high concentrations include the cluster-group of adjacent deparments around Tam (57) plus three concentrations in the Paris (56), Orne (44) and Gironde (28) departments. The operating assumption here -- subject to verification by testing -- is that Guittards found grouped in the same vicinity with the same spelling are probably part of the same family line. (One possible exception is Paris, which may have been more likely to draw from different lines around the country). Guittard groups derived from recent birth records need to be correlated with early census records and other sources on Guittard in order to determine more clearly the different principal Guittard lines in France for investigation.

Similarly, FOR GUITARD (SINGLE-T) BIRTHS (TOTAL 845), HIGH CONCENTRATIONS HAVE BEEN FOUND IN THREE CLUSTER-GROUPS OF DEPARTMENTS AROUND *AVEYRON (98), *HAUTE VIENNE (93), AND *PYRENEES ORIENTALES (71) with an additional concentration in Paris (77).

132 Guiters were heavily concentrated in *Pyrenees Orientales (80) - southwest of Puy de Dome - across the Pyrenees border from Spain on the Mediterranean coast.

67 Quittards were heavily concentrated in *Gard (50) - south of Puy de Dome with its tip on the Mediterranean coast, showing possible Italian or Spanish influence.

30 Guitters showed the heaviest concentration in Sarthe (11) in northwest central France.

13 Quitards were found mostly in Seine Maritime (7) on the northwest coast.

16 Gittards were found mainly in Seine et Marne (7) in northeast central France.

More recently, Puy de Dome has still been the highest Guittard-producing department in France, with 154 born between 1966 and 1990. Rhone is next highest with 50.

During the same years, Haute Garonne is the department that has produced the most Guitard births with 91 persons. Aveyron is next highest with 74. Geopatronyme.com. The 13th-century Maison de Guitard, still located in Rudez, Aveyron, belonged to wealthy bankers and features a large fortified tower called the Tour des Anglais (Tower of the English).

This group of six tests in France, marked above with asterisks on our priority wish-list, plus our nine current Guittard tests, plus one test now on the way from Guittards in Nice, plus a projected test from the American Guitars, would make a total of seventeen tests -- including Guittards, Guitards, Guitar, Guitart, Guiter, and Quittard. These tests would likely show whether the differently spelled names are related to a common ancestor and how close the relationship is. Ideally the testers would have lived in the same location as long as their family can remember or trace.

This projected series of seventeen key tests should give us maximum information and the biggest overall picture of the most common Guittard-related surnames with a minimum of tests, and would provide a substantial base both for continuing investigation and tracing, and for individual tests submitted from time to time hereafter. Since FTDNA recommends at least two tests on each line for verification, we hope additional individual tests submitted from time to time will provide the secondary confirming tests.

We have also seen internet trees showing the southwestern France line of Louis Guittard, born c. 1630 Arethes, Tarn, Midi-Pyrenees Department, Languedoc province, southwestern France, 81160, who allegedly traces back through his father Antoine Guittard (wife Jeanne Sere) to his grandfather Jean Guittard, in the 1500’s. A test on this line is needed to help us determine whether this line could be related to the R1b1 Puy de Dome Guittard line on the northeast, or the Saintonge-Montreal line of JOSEPH-JEAN GUITARD, or the Bordeaux-Missouri line of JOHN GUITAR, or the Andorra-Barcelona Guitard line to the southeast.

DNA testing should be able to tell us whether the different Guittard lines with different spellings are related to a common ancestor and show no significant genetic differences, or whether the different spellings represent different branches of the same Guittard tree, or whether they show unrelated lines of different trees.

Our testing so far has found two broadly different Y-DNA patterns in France, with I2b2 Guittards in Alsace and northern France and R1b1b2 Guittards in central and southern France. So far the R1b1b2 Guittards in one location of France are distantly related to Guittards in other locations. Y-DNA investigation has the potential to help identify and join back together on the same tree the different lines of the Guittard family that branched off and relocated 400, 600, 800 years ago or more, or to place back on separate trees the branches that belong to each.

E. COLLECTION OF GUITTARD TESTS FROM GERMANY, SWITZERLAND, ITALY AND SPAIN

We want to identify if possible the places where different Guittard lines came from before arriving in France -- taking a special look at Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Spain.

GERMANY AND SWITZERLAND. We believe our Alsace-New-Brunswick Guittard line may have originated in northern France or Germany because of their I2b2 subclade. (Click on the RESULTS tab above, and see section I.A.) Certainly it is logical that the Alsatian Guittards, located in the northeastern corner of France, would have been related to Guittards in nearby Germany or Switzerland. We need to obtain suitable Guittard and I2b2 tests from Germany and Switzerland to explore that possibility and develop more facts.

Confirming our I2b2 Alsatian Guittards' connection with Germany, we have recently learned that 3,000-year-old I2b2 Bronze Age skeletons found in 1980 in a family burial chamber in the Lichtenstein Cave of north central Germany were related to our I2b2 Alsatian Guittards' ancestors. Further tests are being conducted to learn more details about the Lichtenstein-Alsace relationship, but at this time we believe the two ancestral groups were distant cousins.

Current Infobel phone directories show 10 Guittard-variation listings in Switzerland.

SPAIN AND ITALY. National Geographic's Genographic Project has tracked the distant ancestors of our R1b1b2 Guittard lines in central and southern France, Spain and Italy. These distant R1b ancestors moved west through Italy and into the warmer areas of Spain for refuge during the last Ice Age more than 16,000 years ago and then moved up into southern and central France when the weather became warmer about 10,000 years ago. Building on our information from Guittard tests in Toulouse, Larodde, Catalonia, and Nice, we are seeking suitable Guitard tests from Marseille, Aveyron, and northwestern Italy that may help us confirm whether these anticipated R1b1b2 Guittard patterns in Italy, Spain and France are correct.

The Infobel telephone directory in Spain shows 90 Guitars, 75 Guitards, and 1 Guittard.

The directory in Italy shows 2 Guitars.

No telephone listings for Guittards (or related spellings) have been found in the Netherlands, Luxembourg or Denmark.

Anyone with suggestions or leads on how to develop Guittard tests from areas in Germany, Switzerland, Italy or Spain is encouraged to inform the Guittard group administrator.

F. ESTIMATING GUITTARD-VARIATION POPULATIONS TODAY

For the US and Canada, trying to make a rough estimate of the total population today of persons with Guittard-variation surnames using Yahoo phonebook listings, we find the following numbers of telephone listings for the different Guittard-variation surnames:

Guitard -- US 117 - Can 886
Guitar ---- US 127 - Can 96
Guittar --- US 71 -- Can 0
Guiter ---- US 59 -- Can 1
Guittard - US 56 -- Can 9
Totals --- US 430 - Can 992
0 or 1 for Guitter, Gittard, Quittard, and Quitard

We guesstimate the actual numbers for each surname at around three times the number of telephone listings, resulting in a Guittard-variation surname total population of perhaps 4,000 - 5,000 persons in Canada and the US combined.

In France, L'Internaute Magazine webpage estimates current numbers of Guittard-variation surname persons now living in France as follows:
Guittard - 3,281
Guitard -- 3,273
Guitter ---- 617
Guiter ----- 168
Guitar ------ 14
Gittard ----- 51
Quittard -- 277
Quitard --- 149, and

0 Guittar, Guttard, Quitter, Quiter, Quittar, Quitar, Widhart, Withardus, Vuitardus, Guitardus, Guihardus.

So the current estimated French sub-population of Guittard-variation names and phonetic equivalents would be about 8,000 out of a current total French population of about 60,500,000, including recent immigration -- about 0.013 %.

(Note: L'Internaute appears to base its data on findings from its related business of finding old friends or classmates, rather than census information. Consequently, the scientific and statistical basis of its data and methodology is not clear, although so far it is the most useful approximation we have been able to find.)

The current France telephone directory on infobel.com lists 1,206 Guitards and 1,149 Guittards.

The current Belgium directory shows 5 Guittard-variation listings.

G. GUITTARD FAMILY COMMUNE AT THIERS -- POSSIBLE ORIGIN OF GUITTARD LINES IN 12TH-CENTURY PUY DE DOME

We are delighted to report that a Guittard now living in the area of Puy de Dome and Thiers in France has tested R1b1b2a1b, and a second Guittard tester tracing back to Larodde on the west side of Puy de Dome has also tested R1b1b2a1b. We may be on the path of correctly identifying the Y-DNA profile back to the historic Guittard Family Commune in 12th-century France.

Burgundy (Bourgogne), the area from which Etienne Guittard immigrated, lies on the north of THIERS, a town located west of Lyon in east central France. At Thiers several family community republics flourished from the MIDDLE AGES through the French Revolution with common ownership of property and common cultivation of land. The oldest and most famous of these was the GUITTARD FAMILY COMMUNE of knife-maker craftsmen and farmers half a league northwest of Thiers in the hamlet of Pinon. Legrand d' Aussy reported in his letters of 1787-1788 that the founding of the QUITTARD family commune in Pinon dated by tradition back to the 12th century. Emile de Laveleye discussed the medieval GUITTARD family commune at length in 1878. The Guittard commune was partitioned and dissolved in 1819. (Note the morphing of Quittard to Guittard.) See http://www.geocities.com/pmbringer/genhist/quittardpinon-legranddaussy.htm, and www.ecn.bris.ac.uk/het/laveleye/prim15.htm.

THIERS is situated in the ancient and historic former province of AUVERGNE at the center of France in the mountainous region of the Massif Central. THIERS is a picturesque and fascinating 18th- and 19th-century town built on the side of a steep hill and located on the Durolle River. The streets run only up and down. It is still famous for its cutlery, producing everything from table knives to daggers and supplying 70% of France's cutting needs. This region has been settled by humans probably longer than anywhere else in France. See the Discover France website.

THE NAME AUVERGNE IS DERIVED FROM THE ARVERNI, A CELTIC PEOPLE WHOSE LEADER VERCINGETORIX DEFIED AND WAS DEFEATED BY JULIUS CAESAR in Burgundy at Alesia (now Alise-Ste-Reine, about 125 miles north of Thiers) in 52 B.C. About thirty miles west of THIERS the Celts, known as Gauls, worshiped their god of war on Puy de Dome, which they considered a royal mountain. Also, the Guittard family commune features -- tight family clan, knife-making, common ownership of land, and so on -- were also characteristic of the much earlier Celtic tribes in the same vicinity.

(Amusing coincidence: In the 2001 French-language movie "DRUIDS," Max von Sydow played an Arch Druid advisor to Vercingetorix named Guttuart. The character was called Guttuatr in the book on which the movie was based, THE DRUID KING, by Norman Spinrad. The Celts called their priests "gutuatri," meaning "speakers" [to the gods]. In Gaul one chief Druid had authority over the others, the position being an elective one. Caesar put to death a gutuatros in Gaul, according to his lieutenant Hirtius, and the Romans eventually suppressed and broke the power of the Druids in Gaul. Peter Berresford Ellis, THE CELTS A HISTORY, pp. 48-49.)

As to why some Guittards might have moved from THIERS to Burgundy, Bordeaux and other places, Thiers was hit periodically by terrible hard times, like other areas in France -- epidemics, famines, wars, revolutions, religious conflicts, economic depressions, and other upheavals, including the plague of 1600-1616, the plague and grain shortage of 1625-1631, and the Thirty Years War of 1618-1648. Or perhaps over time the commune was producing too many young people to support and keep them all on the same limited Guittard acreage, and periodically some had to move elsewhere to find enough land to support a family.

The department where Thiers and Pinon are located is Puy de Dome, which even recently (1966-1990) -- almost two centuries after the dissolution of the Guittard commune and twenty centuries after Caesar's defeat of the Arverni that worshipped at Puy de Dome -- is still the department producing by far the highest number of Guittard births in France out of all its departments. This unique modern center of Guittard births in Puy de Dome appears reasonably and likely due to the unique, early and long-continued presence in Puy de Dome of the Guittard Family Commune. The possibility that some of today's Guittard lines came from an early Guittard epicenter near Thiers (or Ruffec or Alsace) makes the Guittard family lines particularly appropriate for a long-range DNA tracing study, and makes our two Guittard tests in Puy de Dome highly important.

H. ALSACE GUITTARDS IN 11TH-CENTURY RECORDS

As background, the Celts (Gauls) reportedly had their French origin in the Alsace-Lorraine region of eastern France in the years between 1500-1000 B.C. This era is roughly when Moses and King David were active in Judea. The Celts of this period were a Bronze Age people, although before long they became the first people north of the Mediterranean civilizations to use iron, giving the Celts a superior position in weapons and tools in their geographic region. See John Patrick Parle, Story of the Celts: The Ancient Celts; Robert MacNeil et al, The Story of English (New York: Viking, 1986).

Alsace was occupied in the first century B.C. by the Sequani, a Celtic people in Gallic territory between the Saône, Rhône, and Rhine rivers, with their chief city at Vesontio (modern Besançon, southwest of Haut-Rhin, Alsace). Encyclopedia Britannica. Julius Caesar defeated the Aedui and then occupied Sequanian territory in modern Alsace. Later, in 58 BC, the Sequani and the Aedui formed an alliance with Caesar to drive out the Germans, and the Sequani lands became part of the Roman Empire. Caesar drove back the Germans, but obliged the Sequani to surrender all land they had gained from the Aedui, angering the Sequani. They joined in the revolt of Vercingetorix and shared in his defeat by Caesar at Alesia.

Our Guittard cousins in Alsace have directed us to sources on the Guittard family in Alsace. Le Centre Départemental d'Histoire des Familles states that the name Guittard comes from the German given name Widhart, and its different forms Withardus, Vuitardus, Guitardus, and Guihardus, found in 11TH CENTURY charter lists and obituaries. Also, the German given name "Guitert" is said to derive from the German words "wid" and "hard," meaning "forest" and "strong."

Others suggest the name may have derived from the word "kithara," the name of an ancient Greek stringed instrument somewhat similar to a guitar.

Some of our Alsatian Guittard cousins believe the source for the name and family is French, based on family tradition that they are French, and not German. Perhaps the name Widhart and its variants are roughly phonetic attempts by German record keepers in Alsace to record original French versions of the Guittard name in an era when few could read or write.

In 1554 and 1562 Thiebaut QUITTER was living in Haut-Rhin, Alsace, at Dannemarie. In 1595 Andre Quitter was a cabaret keeper at Dannemarie. The 1659 census lists two QUITTARD families in Bellemagny -- Jean, born c. 1623, and widow Marguerite, born c. 1609. The 1698 census lists four GUITTARD families -- Jacques and Thiebaut in Bellemagny, Nicolas in Brechaumont, and Jean in Bretten. Thus Guittards were present in Alsace from at least the mid-1500's. (Note the morphing of Quitter to Quittard to Guittard.) We need to research the referenced charter lists and obituaries to determine dates more specifically and to confirm that the Guittards have been present in Alsace from the 11th century -- that is, even before the earliest reported time Guittards were present at the Guittard commune at Pinon near Thiers. See http://cdhf.telmat-net.fr/fr/html/notices/guittard.html

The Guittard population in Haut-Rhin, Alsace, has changed but little over the last hundred years, with 20 births in 1891-1915, 28 in 1916-40, 21 in 1941-65, and 16 in 1966-90.

I. GUITARDS IN 10TH-CENTURY CATALONIA AND 11TH-CENTURY ANDORRA

We are delighted that we now have our first Guitart tester from Spanish Catalonia. This test will hopefully allow us to begin defining a profile for the 10th-Century and 11th-Century Guitards that were important figures in Catalonian and Andorran history, based on Catalonian records of Guitards dating from 941 AD.

In 941, 944, 947, and 975 AD, a rocca (castle) owned by a certain GUITARD and his family is recorded in southern France or Catalonia. In 966 Guillem Guitard and Bernat Otzger sold the castle Nou de Pontons on the hill of the Fonoll, locality of Pontons, the region of l'Alt Penedès, province of Barcelona to the Count of Barcelona, Ramon Berenguer I.

VISCOUNT GUITARD of Barcelona, Catalonia, (now Spain), is listed in Wikipedia as 966-985 AD -- presumably the dates he carried that title. He is also named in a 981 AD document as having left a will proved in an unusual procedure before a judge and a panel of good men. See THE LIBRARY OF IBERIAN RESOURCES ONLINE, Archibald R. Lewis, The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718-1050. Also, a Calle Guitard street runs in the heart of downtown Barcelona, next to the trade fair and the train station, and the Agrest de Guitard winery is south of Barcelona.

VISCOUNT GUITARD's possible descendant, GUITARD ISARN DE CABOET is found in Andorra, a tiny, unique co-principality, land-locked high in the Pyrenees Mountains on the eastern portion of France's southern border with Spain. Its people live in seven river valleys between the mountains in an area only about 13 miles in diameter. It is surrounded on the north by the French Department of Pyrenees Orientales (French Catalonia), and on the south by Spanish Catalonia in the northeastern corner of Spain. Spanish Catalonia is an autonomous community having Barcelona as its capital, and some of the earliest mentions of Guitards were in Catalonia. Andorra still today has two co-princes -- the President of France and the Bishop of Urgell, Spain. (Celts had dual-king monarchies in the Belgae tribe, as Caesar noted, and in Ireland, and in their invasion threatening Rome in 223-222 BC. Ellis, p. 31.)

Andorra is the last surviving independent buffer state created by Charlemagne ca. 805 AD to keep the Muslim Moors from advancing into Christian France. Charlemagne granted a charter to the Andorran people in return for their fighting the Moors. In the 800s, Charlemagne's grandson Charles the Bald made the Count of Urgell overlord of Andorra, and the Count's descendant later gave the lands to the Bishop of Urgell.

In 1050 AD in the Court at Barcelona in Spanish Catalonia, Count Ramon Berenguer I made a mutual pact of alliance with his cousin, Count Ermengol of Urgell. Ramon commended two of his men as vassals to his brother Sanc Berenguer. One of the men, ADALBERT GUITARD, was commended with the honor of holding lands, castles, rights, etc. in the counties of Barcelona and Osona.

Also around 1050 A.D. the Bishop of Urgell became worried that Andorra was not secure from attack by neighboring lords. So the Bishop placed Andorra and its defense under the protection of LORD CABOET, a Spanish nobleman, giving in exchange properties and some rights in the Valleys. In 1096 A.D., GUITARD ISARN [meaning "iron"] DE CABOET swore fidelity to the Bishop "Bernat Sanç." In 1110 GUILLEM GUITARD did the same, and in 1159 Arnau de Caboet.

In 1133 the Count of Urgell gave to the Bishop and the Cathedral of Urgell all the rights to the Valleys of Andorra in perpetuity, and ordered the inhabitants of the Valleys to swear fidelity to the Bishop and his successors and respect all the duties of good vassals. Urgell guaranteed this donation along with six Andorran delegates, including MIRO GUITARD, Master of the Valleys de Cabó and Sant Joan. The rights on Andorra passed successively from Caboet to Castellbó in 1185.

See THE LIBRARY OF IBERIAN RESOURCES ONLINE
A Medieval Catalan Noble Family: the Montcadas, 1000-1230, by John C. Shideler; U.S. State Department Press Briefing Book; Josep Quereda Vàzquez, HISTORY OF ANDORRE by translated by Xavier Pi i Garcia, http://www.andorramania.com/histoire_gb.htm

KNIGHT TEMPLAR COMMANDER GUITART was recorded in Catalonia in 1343 AD in Villafranca, in 1346-1362 AD in Avinyonet, and in 1359-1362 AD in Cast Ampuries, around the time of the Sixth Crusade in 1348-1354 AD.

North of the border in French Catalonia, the period 1891-1915 saw Guitard-variant surname births in Pyrenees Orientales plus other border departments as follows:

GUITARD - Pyrenees Orientales 71; Haute-Garonne 53 (southern tip on border)

GUITER - Pyrenees Orientales 80; Haute Pyrenees 7

GUITTARD - Haute Garonne (southern tip on border) 32; Pyrenees Orientales 8

On the current population of Guitards in Spain, we find 92 Guitard telephone listings in the current Spanish directory on infobel.com. We also find Guitards in Spain and Portugal through google, and we hope to contact them by email.

Of course, if we find the Guitards on both sides of the Pyrenees border are related, then the French Guitards could have come down from Spanish Guitards who moved north over the Pyrenees from Catalonia. Or perhaps French Guitards from the Ruffec or Puy de Dome areas moved down into Spanish Catalonia during the Spanish Reconquest around the time Charlemagne captured Spanish Catalonia and took Barcelona from the Moors in 797 AD. Or testing might show that the Spanish or French Guitards along the Pyrenees border are completely separate lines from different haplogroups.

Some Guitars immigrated into New Orleans from Spain and Cuba, such as S. Jago Guitar in 1824 from Cuba, and Salvador Guitar in 1837 from Malaga, Spain. Some Mexican-born Guitards also entered the United States, such as Amiel and Robert Guitard, who appeared on the 1860 census in San Antonio. Plus, we have the Guiterrez-variant families from Spain and Mexico, and no idea whether they are related.

We hope anyone having either current or historical information on Guitard-variation surnames in Andorra, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Belgium, or elsewhere will give us additional facts.

We especially hope that Guitards and similar spellings in Andorra, Spain, Portugal, and Mexico will submit a test, so we can compare them to French Guitards in Pyrenees Orientales, Haute Garonne, Aveyron and Haute Vienne and to French Guiters in Pyrenees Orientales, and confirm whether they should be joined as a branch of the same family tree or placed on their separate tree.

J. BRITISH ISLES -- PICT KING GARNOT III (GUITARD) IN SCOTLAND 523-530 AD

The earliest Guitard we have discovered so far in the historical record is KING GARNOT III (GUITARD) -- 38th High King of the Picts, 523-530 AD. The Pict kingdom was the Late Iron Age successor to the Kingdom of Scone, which followed the Kings of Tara. The kingdom was variously called Pictavia, Caledonia, and the Kingdom of Albany. Its royal succession was an oddly complicated matrilineal system. The Picts' first high-king Calgacus was elected by the Druids at Scone in 75 AD and later defeated by the Romans at the battle of Mons Graupius in 83 AD. The Kingdom of Albany became the Kingdom of Scotland in 843 AD when Scottish King Kenneth MacAlpin defeated the Pict's last king at the Battle of Forteviot. But commentators haven't always agreed on whether the Picts were Celtic or pre-Celtic, or when or where they came from. http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/scottishkings.wps.htm

Now Guittard-variation surname families are still present in the British Isles, as shown by google searches and current telephone searches on infobel.com. Current phone directories show 5 Guittard-variation listings in the United Kingdom.

The 1901 England census shows 18 Guitards, 3 Guittards, and 3 Guitars. The 1841 census shows 16 Guitards and 8 Guitars -- most born in England, except for a few of the older ones.

However, the group administrator's information on Guittard-variation families in these countries is substantially limited by records access from the US. Anyone having knowledge of the Guittard-variation surname families in these countries and elsewhere is invited to inform the group administrator.

Any Guittard-variation surname family in these countries and any other countries not already mentioned is also invited to test for comparison and possible matching and tracing. Tests from these countries would help to expand our understanding of the geographic movements of the Guittard-variation surname families across national borders through time.

K. COMMANDER GUITARD OF THE PICTAVIANS -- HERO OR LEGEND?

Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote about a COMMANDER GUITARD OF THE PICTAVIANS, who may or may not have been the same as the PICT HIGH KING GARNOT III (GUITARD). In his sometimes fanciful HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF BRITAIN ca. 1138, Geofffrey wrote that COMMANDER GUITARD OF THE PICTAVIANS fought first against the legendary KING ARTHUR and then for King Arthur against Rome in the Battle of Suesia (Soissons).

Planning to punish his enemies and conquer Europe, King Arthur conquered Ireland, Norway, and Dacia in eastern Europe. He then sailed to Rome's province of Gaul (France), governed by Roman tribune Flollo under Emperor Leo [457-474 AD]. Arthur laid waste the country and besieged Flollo in Paris. After one month Flollo challenged Arthur to personal combat outside Paris. Arthur killed him, and Paris surrendered.

Arthur ordered his deputy commander Hoel to lead part of his army into Aquitaine (southwestern France) against COMMANDER GUITARD OF THE PICTAVIANS. Hoel took the cities of Aquitaine after distressing commander GUITARD in several battles, and finally forced GUITARD to surrender. After nine years of war, Arthur conquered all of Gaul. He re-entered Paris, held court, assembled the clergy and the people, established peace and just administration of laws, divided the provinces among his lieutenants, and returned in the spring to Britain.

Arthur decided to hold a magnificent court and crown himself king before his kings and nobles. He selected the City of Legions (Caerleon?) in Glamorganshire (in Wales) on the River Uske near the Severn Sea -- a city of great wealth and magnificent palaces rivaling the grandeur of Rome. He invited the princes of Gaul and Britain and other worthies to the ceremony, including Augusel, king of Albania (later Scotland), the three archbishops, and the consuls of the principal cities. From across the seas came the kings of Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Dacia, GUITARD OF PICTAVIA, the twelve peers of Gaul, Duke Hoel of the Armorican Britons, and others, and participated in a magnificent celebration.

Five years after Arthur's victory in Gaul, Roman general Lucius Tiberius sent Arthur a letter, ordering him to Rome to be punished for refusal to pay tribute to Rome and other insults. Arthur and his kings and nobles raised an army and marched toward Augustodunum (Autun, France). 15,000 Romans ambushed Arthur's forces to recover Roman prisoners, and would have succeeded but for GUITARD OF PICTAVIA. GUITARD MOVED UP 3,000 MEN AND COUNTER-ATTACKED, FORCING THE ROMANS TO RETIRE.

Before Tiberius could reach Augustodonum, Arthur moved quickly by night into the VALLEY OF SUESIA where Tiberius must pass. Arthur placed two groups of 5,500 men each in front. Augusel, King of Albania, commanded on the left, and the duke of Cornwall on the right. Four groups were in the rear. One was commanded by Caius the sewer and Bedver the butler (Sir Kay and Sir Bedevere?), and another was commanded jointly by Duke Holdin and GUITARD OF THE PICTAVIANS. Arthur placed his own legion of 6,666 behind the four groups in the rear.

The Romans attacked, and in the slaughter that followed, Caius was mortally wounded. Bedver and GUITARD'S co-commander Holden were killed. Hoel and Walgan rallied Arthur's soldiers bravely. Arthur and his legion attacked in support of Hoel and Walgan. Savage, desperate fighting and slaughter continued with bravery on both sides. Finally Arthur's reserve legion attacked the rear of the enemy, broke through and dispersed the Romans with great slaughter. Tiberius was slain.

Geoffrey did not mention Guitard in his discussion of the legendary final battle of Camlann between King Arthur (who was mortally wounded) and the Picts under his nephew Modred (who were slaughtered). If Commander Guitard was the same person as High King Guitard of the Picts, then he may have died at the end of his reported reign in 530 AD, and would not have been alive when the battle allegedly occurred around 537 AD (Monmouth said 542 AD).

Notwithstanding the legends and fictional passages in Geoffrey's History, some writers believe King Arthur could have been a genuine historical figure. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Arthur

But whether King Arthur was an authentic historical figure or not, Geoffrey wrote his book before the common use of surnames. Geoffrey specifically referred to the Pictavian commander with the distinctive Guitard name. If there was no Commander Guitard of the Pictones in Gaul, then perhaps Geoffrey used that distinctive name because he had heard of the High King of the Picts in Scotland. Both the Pictones of France and the Picts of Scotland were sometimes called Pictavians (presumably in Latin), leading us to wonder whether these tribes might have been DNA-related.

The connection between Guitard and King Arthur is further reinforced in the even earlier Arthurian tale, CULHWCH AND OLWEN. Arthur’s cousin Culhwch asks Arthur for the beautiful Olwen, daughter of Chief Giant Ysbaddaden, as a boon in the name of various warriors of King Arthur. One warrior he named was GWITARD, SON OF AEDD, KING OF IRELAND. This Welsh tale is contained in THE MABINOGION, a collection of stories based on oral traditions of the Welsh bards and translated by Lady Charlotte Guest. The tale survives in only two manuscripts: a complete version in the Red Book of Hergest, ca. 1400, and a fragmented version in the White Book of Rhydderch, ca. 1325. It is the longest of the surviving Welsh prose tales, and some linguistic evidence indicates it took its present form by the 11th century, making it perhaps the earliest Arthurian tale and one of Wales' earliest surviving prose texts. Wikipedia; Christopher Bruce, ARTHURIAN NAME DICTIONARY. Bruce says the name Guitard probably came from the Welsh Gwitart.

Consequently, we are greatly interested in obtaining tests from Guitards born in Scotland, England or Ireland, whose families might have migrated many centuries ago from earlier homes in the land of the Picts in Scotland, or the land of the Pictones in western France.

L. OTHER FAMOUS AND INFAMOUS GUITTARDS IN HISTORY

We are in the process of identifying and researching other famous and infamous Guittards in history. We would welcome more details and suitable tests to define the profiles on these Guittard lines and other Guittard figures in history.

JOURNALIST CELESTIN GUITTARD DE FLORIBAN (1724 - aft. 1795) was a middle-class observer who kept a daily journal and made sketches on executions and other events during the Reign of Terror, leaving an important historical record. JOURNAL D'UN BOURGEOIS DE PARIS SOUS LA REVOLUTION. Journal de Célestin Guittard de Floriban, 1791-1796.

A GUITTARD CAME TO AMERICA WITH LAFAYETTE allegedly and served during the Revolutionary War, reportedly of the Alsace-Kansas line.

CAPT. JEAN-BAPTISTE GUITTARD OF BELLEMAGNY. Another Guittard of the Alsace-Kansas line reportedly served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies during Napoleon's time. Emma E. Forter, HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY KANSAS, 1917, p. 452. We believe this Guittard may have been Capt. Jean-Baptiste Guittard of Bellemagny, captain of the gendarmerie and war hero, who was called to serve as a substitute to the National Convention Assembly in 1795. Capt. Guittard became a deputy of Haut Rhin aux Anciens in 1797.

SAINT FRANCISCO COLL Y GUITART (1812-1875) was a Spanish monk who was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on 11 Oct 2009. Saint Francis Coll worked in the Order of Preachers, evangelizing in Spanish Catalonia, and founded an order of Dominicans in the 19th century, the Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

DANIEL GUITTARD was an architect for Louis XIV. His 17th-century home was in the luxurious hotel now operating as the Hotel des Saints-Peres in the heart of Saint Germain des Pres. The Church of St. Sulpice, one of the largest and richest in Paris, was begun in 1646 initially on the plans of the master builder Christophe Gamart, modified by Louis Le Vau, and then built under Daniel Guittard from 1660.

JEAN-ETIENNE GUETTARD (1715 Etampes - 1786 Paris) was a celebrated French naturalist and physician. He was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1743, and was later appointed as keeper of the Duke of Orleans' cabinet of natural history. He first ascertained the volcanic nature of the mountains of Auvergne and determined the true character of organic remains which had been only partially recognized before. He was the author of "Memoirs on some Mountains of France formerly Volcanoes," 1752, a treatise "On the Granites of France compared with those of Egypt," 1755, and other valuable works.

TWO GUITTARDS DIED IN NAZI CAMPS 1942-1945:
Guittard, Laurent-Jean, born 1-27-1905, Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, 31555, died 3-7-1944, Dachau, Germany, and
Guitard, Gilbert Pierre-Joachim, born 2-21-1895, Bompas, Pyrenees Orientales, 66021, and died 1-2-1945, Oranienburg, Germany.

GEOLOGIST G. GUITARD in France has done important work on the geology of the Pyrenees, including Sur l’évolution des gneiss des Pyrénées, 1956, Extract Bull. Soc. Géol. France (6) V; pp. 441-469, and continuing for decades. A feature called Col de Pre-Guitard is located in Drome, the most southerly department of the Rhone-Alpes region in southeastern France near Italy.

INFAMOUS FRENCH PIRATE CAPTAIN LEWIS GUITTAR was born during the Golden Age of Piracy in Brittany ca. 1667 and spent 20 years in Santo Domingo in Hispaniola. Guittar later testified he was living at Pointe au Gravois, when around December 1699 a sloop of pirates ordered him aboard and compelled him against his will to be their captain. A pirate witness Pelletier later testified that Guittar had refused to join, but that Pelletier and the other pirates had made Guittar their captain anyway.

Capt. Guittar sometimes wore a golden toothpick on a golden necklace. Described by the master of a captured ship, “The Captain was a man of middle stature, square-shouldered, large jointed, lean, much disfigured with the smallpox, broad speech, thick-lipped, a blemish or cast in his left eye, but courteous."

Capt. Guittar began in the Caribbean and moved on to the Chesapeake Bay, taking at least nine merchant ships, including the Dutch ship La Paix. The pirates took many English prisoners, beating and torturing them to force them to turn pirate. The master of the Friendship of Belfast was killed when the pirates fired on his ship. The Pennsylvania Merchant was plundered and burned for resisting the pirates. Capt. Guittar took four ships in the Chesapeake Bay on 28 April 1700.

Alerted, Capt. John Aldred of the HMS Essex Prize in the Chesapeake Bay came ashore the same day. He told British Governor-General of Virginia Francis Nicholson that a pirate ship was in Lynnhaven Bay of the Chesapeake. Posting a reward of 20 pounds for killing or capturing any pirate, Gov. Nicholson went on board the under-manned 28-gun British guardship HMS Shoreham under Capt. William Passenger with customs agent Peter Hayman, Esq. They sailed up the James River and into Lynnhaven Bay.

Early the next morning the Shoreham engaged Capt. Guittar on his 84-foot, 28-gun pirate ship La Paix when many pirates were drunk. Capt. Guittar and his crew fought under the blood red pirate's flag for many hours. After seven hours of courageous conduct, firing into the pirates' ship, Peter Hayman was slain with small shot from the pirates while standing next to Gov. Nicholson on the quarter deck. Maneuvering skillfully back and forth and firing with larger guns, Capt. Passenger finally obtained the advantage after eight hours. The pirate ship, unable to steer and with its masts and sails shot away, became grounded, with 25-30 pirates killed.

The pirates decided to blow up their own ships if they could not go free. Capt. Guittar ordered a captive passenger to swim to the Shoreham and tell them the pirates would blow up their own ship with many innocent captives on board in the hold of the ship if they weren't granted quarter and pardon. (Guittar himself later testifed he had opposed blowing up the ship, and had set two sentinels to guard the powder barrels.) Gov. Nicholson granted quarter, but not pardon, and referred the pirates to the King's mercy. Capt. Guittar then surrendered, giving up 40-50 English captives, and 124 pirates were taken prisoner.

Capt. Guittar and his crew were later put on trial. Four pirate crew members were convicted and hanged on gibbets at various public places around the Chesapeake Bay as a terrible warning to other pirates. Sensitively, the Judge ordered the bodies to be left hanging on a good strong chain or rope "till they rot and fall away." Capt. Guittar and the rest of the crew were transported to England for trial, with special orders that Capt. Guittar be transported on a ship with no other pirates.

Capt. Guittar and the entire crew pleaded quarter as a defense plus the pirate's invariable defense -- "Those other wicked pirates forced me to serve against my will." But, as usual, the forced-to-serve defense failed because the defendants couldn't prove it. The quarter defense failed because the quarter grant had not included pardon and because it was made only under the illegal threat of murder. Capt. Guittar and his crew were well and truly hanged in 1700 for Piracy on the High Seas. A summary of the court papers is on Google. For an excellent series on the fight, see Diane Tennant, VIRGINIAN-PILOT, 13 Aug 2006, http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=109136&ran=89446

We would love to have a test from Capt. Guittar's family or from a Guittar family that has been living in Brittany for as long as anyone can remember in order to try to identify a possible profile for Capt. Guittar. Perhaps the most likely match from a geographical standpoint would be a match between a Brittany Guittar and our test down from the Ruffec Guitards on the west central coast of France.

M. OTHER STUDY FEATURES

The testing member may furnish his direct paternal line information to the group administrator, including the name of the earliest ancestor (and vital dates and places if known) to which he can trace his Guittard line with reasonable probability, using conventional research methods. If FTDNA finds a match between members, FTDNA notifies them, and they may exchange information to expand and extend their paternal lines.

The volunteer group administrator coordinating the study is an amateur genealogist with only limited knowledge of DNA technology. He handles administrative details, answers member questions within the range of his information, manages this website, and summarizes results when available with the information and guidance of the testing company Family Tree DNA (FTDNA).

FTDNA is available by email and by phone to discuss the meaning and interpretation of test results with the members and the group administrator. Since the members furnish their own ancestor information based on their own conventional research, some may be correct, and some incorrect. Each member can check the sources of the matching member to verify the accuracy of the pedigree information. Neither FTDNA nor the group nor its administrator can verify or vouch for the accuracy of the names, dates, or other pedigree information furnished by the members.

The only money that changes hands is between the participant and FTDNA for the test kit and lab work. FTDNA provides discounted prices for our members. The lab work is done by professionals at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

To implement fully the French phase of this deep-tracing study, we need to contact French historians, history students, and researchers, who could update the research of de Laveleye and others on the Guittard commune at Thiers, Guittards in Alsace, Ruffec, Andorra, Catalonia, and related areas. Perhaps a history student doing the equivalent of a master's thesis could be encouraged to investigate and survey both original documents as well as pertinent histories for references to the Guittard community and its own special history.

The study would also benefit from having a co-administrator or correspondent in France or Canada who could assist in finding test participants from the different Guittard lines in France and Canada, contacting historians and history students, and helping with communications, internet searches, and language matters.

This website is updated periodically with new information. Any additions or corrections to the information on this website and any ideas to make this website more useful, accurate, or informative, or to improve the design of the study, are welcome.