This is the web page of the Cellier family. Please visit often for updates and expanded content.
These pages, maintained by Alfred Cellier III, include Cellier Genealogy data of persons of Swiss ancestry named Cellier, by birth or by marriage, using data collected at the Cellier Web Site at MyHeritage by Prof. Dr. François E. Cellier, our cousin at ETH Zürich. Importing those data to this site enables the records to be found with Google and other search engines, and offers easier tree visualization. Note that living persons are not displayed here; however, family researcher inquiries are welcome.
This graph shows the known (world) population of Swiss Cellier from 1500 through 2010:
This graph was drawn using GenealogyJ to analyze the ged file.
LATEST NEWS -
On 05 March 2012, we imported the latest family trees and illustrations from the Cellier MyHeritage.com site to this site; see them at Swiss Cellier Family.
Cousin François has continued his significant historical research in our French-speaking ancestral home. He has almost completed the photographing and indexing of the church records of La Neuveville, including not only Cellier, but ALL of the residents of the area since approximately 1500. We are grateful to the town for allowing access to the records, to be published in 2012, the year of the 700th anniversary of the village.
We Nods / La Neuveville Swiss (Cellier, Junod, Chiffelle) are a very unique group of humans! Y-DNA tests, indicators of paternal lineage, categorize us as "E1b1b1a2*-B, M78+ V13+ Cluster B". The matches within this cluster are mutually very close, but not at all close to the general population, including typical Frenchmen. We carry extremely rare DYS19 marker values of 8 and 9, shared by only about a half-dozen persons in the entire tested databases. The evidence suggests either Roman or Celtic connection in past millenia. You can read much more in François' articles: Swiss Cellier DNA and DNA_2. See detailed results at the French Swiss project.
Nods-origin Cellier are expected to share our unique characteristics; therefore we *request* that at least one Nods-origin male Cellier will have this easy test, and thus verify the connection between the Nods and La Neuveville branches. The Huguenot Swiss Cellier would differ distinctly. We recommend FamilyTreeDNA, now also available through MyHeritage.com.
THE TALE OF OUR SEARCH -
My research started circa 1999 after I retired from my electronics engineering career. I knew little of the background of my grandfather Alfred Cellier, except that he was Swiss. Initial internet searches produced little information. A few documents were obtained from U.S. government records. In 2001, with great luck we discovered the (EPFL) PhD research publication of Prof. Dr. Antoine Wasserfallen, centered on the business of Neuchâtelois Antoine Borel in San Francisco, which included family details connecting the Cellier and Borel families. In 2002, Ron Fick (great grandson of Antoine Borel) saw one of our posted inquiries, and Ron sent us a 1901 letter from Alfred; and later, childhood photos of Alfred Jr. and Yvonne. That year we first glimpsed an example of a Ballif and Cellier Clock, offered in an earlier online auction.
In 2003, we spent 5 days at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City; what a wonderful resource! At that time we discovered that grandfather Alfred had a twin brother, Eugène, as well as brothers Edouard and Charles Edouard and sister Marie-Cécile. Wow! In October of 2003 we traveled to Neuchâtel for additional research, and to walk the streets of grandfather's village. Thanks to Antoine, we visited the Borel archives at the Moulin of Bevaix, curated by Alphonse Henry, who found several photographs of our family!
A rather long dry spell intervened. In 2009, we did the Y-DNA testing. A very close match was found with Nicolas Junod, of Lignières origin.
Finally, a long-awaited return to Switzerland, for the entire month of July 2010. And what a month! Just days before departure, we received email from Jacqueline Fernández Cellier, great-granddaughter of Eugène! What a wonderful surprise! We altered our plans to include days in Lausanne, where her brother Fernando and sister Isabel live. We began in Zurich, meeting François for the first time (email with him started in 2001). Then to Neuchâtel, as a base. Antoine Wasserfallen included us in his fine 50th birthday celebration at beautiful Hôtel de Peyrou, where we again met Alphonse Henry, and new friends. We toured with DNA-cousin Nicolas, and met Théo Moeckli (son of Maurice Moeckli-Cellier) in La Neuveville. Nick took us to Nods and Orvin (where my ancestor Jean Jacques was preacher, before Basel).
At Neuchâtel castle, I discovered François' ties to La Neuveville. We found the Ballif and Cellier watch in the museum at La Chaux-de-Fonds. We saw the Cellier blason in La Neuveville's historic town hall, in a session graciously arranged by Catherine Chapuis that included fellow U.S. visitor Blake Ballif, quite possibly a distant cousin. I discovered unpublished family trees of La Neuveville researched by Dr. Olivier Clottu, at BPUN in July 2010. We returned to La Neuveville for a day of photographing documents, with the kind guidance of Maurice Evard. The ancient documents there have not been copied otherwise, so are unavailable without such a visit. We went on to Lausanne and enjoyed meeting with Fernando and Isabel. They provided a rich collection of family photographs! We also found time to dine with Antoine Wasserfallen in Montreux.
In late 2010, François began to further explore the available records of La Neuveville, Nods and Diesse, and suceeded in pushing back the family trees of Swiss Cellier (named by birth or marriage) to approximately 1500 in Nods, which we believe is the fount of the Swiss Cellier family. See more in the links on the Genealogy page : Cellier Genealogy
In January 2011, François researched the registries at Etat Civil du Jura Bernois in Courtelary, where the civic records of Nods are being kept.
In February 2011, François continued research in La Neuveville and Nods, and incorporated his findings on the MyHeritage site, and we updated this site, this time including photos. See more on our Cellier Genealogy page. We also added two newly acquired photos of the 'Ballif et Cellier' watch that is in the Museum at La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Filling a gap in my own ancestry records, super-researcher cousin François found traces of my lost great-uncle Charles Edouard Cellier (1869-??), who emigrated to Quebec and married there. Therefore, on 14 March 2011, we updated the 'Cellier of Neuchâtel' pages, containing the relatives and ancestors of my grandfather Alfred Cellier (1870-1943).
In April 2011, I added a page, La Neuveville, containing information about the families of La Neuveville, and posted pdf copies of related books and links about the village and region.
Congratulations to Prof. Dr. François E. Cellier, who on 07 April 2011 was inducted as a member of the Swiss National Academy of Engineering.
On 18 July and 17 August 2011, we again imported the latest trees from the Cellier MyHeritage.com site to this site, a very minor update to the 10 May and June 6 uploads. On 17 August, we also updated our "Cellier of La Neuveville and Neuchâtel" tree.
On 18 October 2011, we imported the latest Cellier MyHeritage.com trees and illustration. In this major update, the Nods and LA Neuveville branches of the Cellier tree were joined to the trunk in Nods!
Please contact me at Alfred~at~Cellier~dot~org
