The exact origin of the Visage Surname remains a mystery, but evidence suggests the surname was already well in use as early as the 13th century in France. There are Medieval court rolls, Parish records and other documents that mention the name Visage in Northwest France and Flanders during this period. Records become sparse before 1650AD but my hope is to make these distant cousin connections using the BIG Y test alongside the records available to build one large family tree. Understandably all Visage surname holders and their variants will not all hold the same Haplogroup and all are welcome to join so that we can piece together and explore the origins of all these lines. The Visagie Surname is a variant of Visage and was used since the early 17th century in Flanders. Pieter Visagie is the only Visagie/Visage that travelled from Europe to South Africa. He is therefore the Progenitor/ Stamvader of all living Visagie’s that herald from South Africa. We know that he came from Antwerp and was taken into service of the Vereenighde Oostindische g’octrooijeerde Compagnie, VOC (Dutch East India Company) as a Sailer in 1654 in Zeeland. On 10 December 1654 in Wielingen, he boards the ship Koudekerke/ Koukercken and arrives in the Caeb de Goede hope (Cape of good hope) on 2 April 1655. On 15 December 1657, Pieter became a free citizen (vryburger), one of the first few men to stay and have living descendants in South Africa today. He had 2 sons, Guilliam and Isaak of which only Guilliam married and had children. All living Visagies would share a common paternal ancestor in Guilliam. My hope for this project is to make connections with distant cousins, establish the Visage/ Visagie Haplogroups and to find the likely origin of the surname and its variants. This is a NEW Project and much can still be improved! Please let me know if there are any suggestions, I am eager to improve and grow this project. - Christiaan Visagie (Admin)