Our Bissetts came from their home in the village of Brevilliers in Montbeliard. Montbeliard is in present day France, a part of the Department of Doubs near the German - Swiss border, but at that time, it was a satelite duchy of the German province of Würtemburg. Most of the inhabitants were French speaking, but there also were many German families there. The predominant religion was Lutheranism.
In Montbeliard, the records show that our family's name was "Bize". Jacques had been born in the village of Ste. Marie, Montbeliard, in 1709. He was the son of Jean Anthoine Bize, who had migrated as a young man to Brevilliers from the town of Morges, which is located in present day Vaud, Switzerland. The Bizes can be traced back in Morges to the arrival there of Jean Anthoine's grandfather, Noah Bize, in about 1640. On the other side, Jacques' mother's family, the Jeins, were long established in Montbeliard.
After the family migrated to Nova Scotia in 1752, the name was changed by the English speaking clerks they encountered to Bizet, Biset, Bisset, and finally Bissett - no doubt influenced by the similarity in pronounciation to the Scottish name that they were familar with. It is unlikely that the original Bizes were much affected of this transformation of their name since they were largely illiterate.
