Mom's maternal side of the family...
I have our family tree book called, "The Payzant And Allied Jess and Juhan Families in North America," published 1970 and written by Marion M. Payzant. It is 452 pages long, including the index. It is hardback with that musty smell to it. Wonderful. It lists four major lines of ancestry as follows: 1) Rev. John Payzant and Mary Alline; 2) Louis Payzant (different one than the one who arrived first) and Grace Davison; 3) Lisette Payzant (unborn at the time of her father's death by the Indians in 1756) and George Jess; and 4) Mary Payzant and John James Juhan.
The name Payzant originated as Paisant in France, which had the original meaning in Old French as "a compatriot, a fellow citizen, a lover of one's country" and was bestowed with deep respect on only those who had proven themselves worthy of the honor. To most people, the name Payzant connotes the word "paysan" meaning in modern French "a peasant." The Paisant name in our family branch may have been changed to Pheasant in England, though Pheasant may be derived from entirely different sources.
In both Canada and the US, any person spelling the name Payzant with an "ayz" is always identified as a descendant of our French Huguenot ancestor, Louis Payzant, the first person in our family to come to the New World in search of religious freedom in July of 1753 on Covey Island, where he was scalped by the Indians in 1756, and the wife and children kidnapped and eventually traded off to St. Anne's, a Jesuit mission station (now Fredericton - children were traded off here), and the French fortified city of Quebec (Mrs. Payzant was traded off here and supposedly had pleaded with General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm-Gozon of the French side of the Seven Years' War to have her children recovered, which was granted).
Louis' ancestor, in turn was born in Beauville, Calvados, Normandy, France about 1565 as Guillaume Paisant (first recorded ancestor that we have). He lived during the first half of the Religious Wars in France when Huguenots were persecuted.
There is much, much more to the story, but basically, the book lists about (let me count them) at least 7,200 ancestors, deceased or living up to the late 1960s. The forum would probably not give me enough space to list the names that range from Abbott to Zwicker, with names listed under every letter of the alphabet except Q and X in the first line; except Q, U, and X in the second line; except Q, X, and Y in the third line; and except E, F, I, N, O, Q, U, V, X, Y, Z in the fourth line.
Mom's paternal side is not near as well recorded, with no book, but pages of a family tree laid out in a giant tree spanning about 10 feet wide (as the names go left-to-right rather than up-down) and several pages of genealogy detailed for several members. The first ancestor was Miles Oakley, born in 1616, in Oakley Grove, Oakley, Cumberland in England, married in Great Neck, Long Island, NY (it doesn't list a date of marriage but would have to be between 1632, and possibly 1650), beating Louis Payzant to the New World by 50-70 years, possibly. Again, too many names to list... But not near as many as the maternal side!
They were Pennsylvania Dutch surnames. I actually am related to a few pow wow witches/doctors in the family tree. My great-great aunt was one through my grandmother's line via my mother. I know a little of this rare language from my grandmother's older brother that lives in the South for a very looong time that it is enough time for him to have an natural Southern accent.
