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The Laswell DNA Project is just beginning on this line, and is currently underway. If you are interested in joining the project, please submit your paperwork and samples through the y-DNA testing which is offered here at GENI, or at the My Family Tree DNA official test site:
[http://www.familytreedna.com/project-join-request.aspx?group=Lasswell]. All spellings are welcome!
The Laswell family hails it’s majority, thus far, from England, Ireland, and Scotland. The Laswell family research indicates that misspellings have occurred over time which created several different variations of the surname. The family research dating back to the medieval period also indicates that the Laswell family, and their spelling variations may originally descend from the family “Lascelles” in Normandy France. Recent research indicates that the Laswell lineage is likely to be originally from the settlement of "La Selle" in the Messei France area near Calvados. La Selle, in French, means "the seat" ~ as in "the seat" of the Laswell family.
The French Normans were known for not placing much importance on the correct, or exact spelling of their surnames ~ particularly while the use of family surnames was a new process. This explains the many spelling variations of a particular surname. In addition, many people were unable to read or write in the medieval times, and thus a particular surname was easily changed because a person would simply write a given surname the way that it phonetically sounded.