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Description
All Plant-like names are invited to participate. A simple Y-DNA37 test will show, for example, whether you belong to the main Plant family or some other smaller Plant family.
SPELLINGS PLANT AND PLANTE
There are, for example, about 30,000 people worldwide with the spelling Plant and a similar number spelled Plante. This makes it impossible to know, by documentary means alone, what mixtures of Plant branches have arrived where. Y-DNA testing is the way forward to find out whether all the Plants in your region are from the same Plant or Plante family or, in more detail, from the same branch of the very large main Plant family.
Taking north America as an example, there are branches of the large main Plant family and, in addition, most of the branches of a different large family spelled Plante, as well as smaller families with either of these two spellings as illustrated at: http://plant.one-name.net/distrib.html#NorthAmerica
If you are, for example, an English or Commonwealth or USA male Plant, there is about 60% chance that you will be found to belong to the unusually-large main Plant family, which descends from such early spellings as Plante or Plonte or Plontt. By measuring extra markers, if appropriate, you can identify in more detail to which branch and sub-branch of the four early major branches of this family you belong. This can help you to identify your nearest Plant relatives amongst those who have been tested so far.
MAJOR BRANCHES OF THE MAIN PLANT FAMILY
Initial progress with the branching was slow. However, following more recent progress with the Plant project and with DNA testing more generally, more substantial progress is now being made.
For example, Branch A of the main Plant family is evidently associated with a Tudor Christopher Plant of the Bakewell Old House Museum whose line crossed the Dark Peak from SE Cheshire or NE Staffordshire to near Shefield. This turns out to be in fact a sub-branch of Branch D which includes another migration to a 1716 ancestor in Tur Langton where an earlier Plant (d. 1537) had been baliff of 3 royal manors. Also, early links to Ireland and America are evident in this and other branches. These can be compared with Plant mobility that could have been as early as Sir John Plant's evident links to both England and Ireland around the times of the fifteenth-century Wars of the Roses.
Further details of the geographical distribution of the different Y-DNA branches of the main Plant family and smaller families are given at http://plant.one-name.net/dna.html#BranchMig
DEEP ANCESTRY OF THE MAIN PLANT FAMILY
Hints are being investigated that the Plant name could have been associated with an illegitimate Longspee-Audley line of the Plantagenets as feudal lords over the Plants, bringing the name into England in the early 13th century. The earliest known occurrence of the name is in 1180 for Durand Plante on the Normandy mainland, near the English Channel Island of Jersey, Deep ancestry Y-DNA testing suggests that the male-line of the main Plant family might have arrived with Atlantic coast trade into Cornwall in the Bronze Age before travelling along the English Channel. More generally, I am currently investigating the possibility that the medieval wine trade (England's most dominant import at the time) played a major role in the early migration of the name, as I currently outline in section 6(ii) at https://plant.one-name.net/earlyRecs.html#homeland
OTHER PLANT FAMILIES AND SLIGHTLY DIFFERENTLY SPELLED NAMES
Not all Plants belong to the main Plant family. For example, two English Plants from south Lincolnshire match one another but do not match with the main Plant family or other smaller Plant families. It seems likely that there was a separate origin to the Plant surname around The Wash in SE England though, alternatively, two families there could have been connected through an early female link.
For the various spellings of the name, some have matched, some have not, and some are yet to be tested.
MATCHED. Three widely separated people with the name spelling Plantt have been found to belong to the main Plant family. Also, one with the spelling LaPlante has matched to the main Plante family.
NOT MATCHED. The DNA signature of the main Plant family does not match with that of a French-Canadian Plante family. Nor do either of these match with someone with the spelling Plants (1 result so far) or Pianta (1 result so far) or someone with the similar name Plenty, perhaps originally Plente (1 result so far) or Plantade (1 result so far). Individuals with these names are hence as yet genetically distinct and unrelated. Whereas one called La Plante matches the main Plante family, one called La Plaunt remains unmatched, as so also does one called La Plant except for his matching two called La Plante who have not joined this project.
NOT TESTED. Though none is yet available, Y-DNA results to establish possible matching would be of interest for the noble Swiss Planta or Von Planta family; also, for a French Plantard or Plante or Plantie or Planty family. There is some documentary evidence of continental links to England, such as for a fourteenth-century London priest, called Henry Plante, who was from the French Alps and a twelfth-century dueller Durand Plante in Normandy under an English king.
DISCREDITED 19th CENTURY CLAIM OF A MALE-LINE CONNECTION TO PLANTAGENET
There was a nineteenth-century claim that the Plants were illegitimate descendants of the Plantagenets. For example, it was considered that early Plants might have related to the de Warenne earls and hence perhaps to the surnames Warren and Waring who have been claimed to descend from Count Geffrey Plante Geneste of Anjou, along with the so-called Plantagenet kings and the surnames Somerset and Cornwall. So far, however, all of these lack matches one to another and lack any confirmation of male-line connection between them. Also, no male-line matches have been found to Y-DNA from the skeleton of Richard III. This seems to suggest over-enthusiastic claims of intact male-line descent from the Plantagenets.
More likely, the Plants could have been peasants under the feudal authority of the Longspee descendants of Geffrey Plante Genest's eldest son, Henry II, who married into the Audley lords. That then provides a better hypothesis to explain the considerable spread of DNA-related Plant ancestors dated back in documentary evidence only as far as recent centuries: further back, there are 20 coincident locations of these particular late medieval lords with the known early records for the Plant name. A further hypothesis suggested by detailed analysis of the evidence is that there were several unrelated Plant families in their main homeland as religious brethren of Dieulacres abbey - most of these families remained small or died out in the male line, with just one male-line family becoming unusually large - in this main Plant homeland, this Cistercian abbey adjoined Audley lands.
INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE
By participating, you will be able to compare your own result with this growing body of information, potentially putting you in touch with your closest male-line relatives. For further details, see: http://plant.one-name.net/join.html or http://plant.one-name.net/dna.html
Requirements
A Surname Project traces members of a family that share a common surname. They are of the most interest in cultures where surnames are passed on from father to son like the Y-Chromosome. This project is for males taking a Y-Chromosome DNA (Y-DNA) test. Thus, the individual who tests must be a male who wants to check his direct paternal line (father's father's father's...) with a Y-DNA12, Y-DNA37, Y-DNA67, or Y-DNA111 test and who has one of the surnames listed for the project. Females do not carry their father's Y-DNA. Females who would like to check their father's direct paternal line can have a male relative with his surname order a Y-DNA test. Females can also order an mtDNA test for themselves such as the mtDNAPlus test or the mtFullSequence test and participate in an mtDNA project. Both men and women may take our autosomal Family Finder test to discover recent relationships across all family lines.
Surnames In This Project
de La Plante, Du Plant, La Plant, La Plante, La Plaunt, Pianta, Plant, Planta, Plantade, Plantadis, Plantagenet, Plantamour, Plantard, Plante, Planter, Planterose, Plantie, Plantier, Plantinet, Plants, Planty, Plaunt, Plente, Plenty, smaller familiesde La Planta, Somerset, Von Planta, Warren