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Surname DNA testing is the newest tool available to genealogists!
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Surname tests allow genealogists to verify their father's father's...father's paternal ancestry.
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Surname DNA information can be very powerful when combined with traditional paper trails.
The following Surnames are currently included in this project:
The Lafond DNA Project is open to all Lafond families, of all spelling variations, and from all locations. The variants currently under study are LaFond, Lafond, La Fond, Le Fond, Delafond, de Lafond, LaFont, LaFonte, LaFontaine, Lafon, and Pepin dit LaFond. (If your surname is not included, or if you know of another variant, please contact the Project Administrator.)
This Lafond Family Project was started to:
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Help researchers from common or related families work together to find their shared heritage.
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Identify how the participant's families are connected, both genetically and through paper trails.
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Identify and confirm genetic Lineages of ancestral families.
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Ultimately catalog pedigrees and genetic connections of all of the known project families.
Participating in a Surname DNA Project provides:
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The participant's genetic DNA, which is very close (and sometimes identical) to his earliest known ancestor.
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The participant's "deep" ancestry (Haplogroup), which identifies the paternal ancestor's prehistoric origins.
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A sense of camaraderie, which is particularly strong for those who share a genetic ancestry
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Stimulation to family research and renewed sharing of information
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A wider sense of identity and relationship, as we begin to realize how much we are a World Family.
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A chance to compare your genetic ancestry with those of your Surname and the spelling variations
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Your genetic matches who do not share your common surname
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The knowledge to understand our ancestors better - particularly where the records have been lost
My name is Sean Lafond Powell, and I am the administrator of this project. I am a direct descendant of Pierre de LaFond, born ca. 1590 in St-Laurent-de-la-Barrière, St. Jean D'Angély, Saintes, Saintonge, France. His son, Étienne sieur de LaFond, emigrated to Québec about 1640, where my lineage runs to the town of Trois Rivières, Québec, and later to Argyle, Minnesota.
My motivation for starting this project is to try to help connect all members of this lineage, as well as any other related lineages of the surname Lafond, and to identify any lineages that are completely separate from this line. I am also strongly interested in tracing the history of the Lafond surname back farther than the existing paper trails currently lead us, potentially back far further than the origin of the Lafond surname itself. This is where DNA testing becomes a powerful genealogical tool. In addition to helping to connect current generations of a surname, DNA testing can help trace lineages back many thousands of years, and can reveal migration patterns of humans from long before there were ever any paper records.
I highly recommend that anybody who is interested in participating in the DNA testing should order a minimum of 37 markers (called the "Y-DNA37" test at the testing lab Family Tree DNA). 67 markers (the "Y-DNA67" test) is much better, and most serious family researchers will eventually upgrade to this level, so you can save a lot of time by starting with this upgrade, rather than upgrading in steps. A 12-marker test may be tempting for somebody who wants to "test the waters" with DNA testing, and may be an attractive option for somebody on a limited budget, but 12-marker tests can be highly inconclusive, and may result in test "matches" with people who are entirely unrelated. Feel free to start with a 12-marker test if you are on a tight budget, but you will most likely end up upgrading at some point later.
The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) tests shown on the test ordering page can provide a limited amount of information about your maternal lineage, but is not useful for tracing the Lafond surname, and in any case do not provide nearly as high a resolution as a Y-DNA test.
For this project to be a success, it is very important to help get as many new members into the project as possible, to help tease apart the relationships between the various lineages shown in the results page. If you discover a DNA match to you, please encourage him to join the project! Furthermore, if your paper trail research has identified any distant cousins and you are able to make contact with them (I can help suggest ways to discover and make contact with such people), please encourage them to join. This will help you confirm that they are indeed kin (paper trails can be very misleading at times!), and will also help determine where mutations in your lineage may have occurred. For the latter purpose, the more distant the cousin, the better.
Please note that new members get heavily discounted FTDNA tests by ordering through the Lafond project.
Click here to order a DNA test in the Lafond project.
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