While researching DNA links for Lunenburg, Nova Scotia (home of Captain James Knowles, see above) I started noting a number of matches to the le Jeune / lejeune (AKA Young) name. D’Entremont in his “Histoire du Cap-Sable, 1763”, states the first Lejeune (Pierre) plus his French wife and children arrived in Acadia before or during the time of Isaac de Razilly (1632-1635). Pierre Lejeune had a son, Pierre Lejeune dit Briard, who in 1689 was a fur trader in the Cape Sable region (near Barrington). This Pierre married a Mi’maw woman and his descendants settled in La Heve Nova Scotia (near Lunenburg). The family was dispersed following the fall of Louisbourg in 1758. One branch of the le Jeune / lejeune family moved to Little Bras d’Or, Cape Breton, NS and then (c 1820s) to Sandy Point, on the west coast of Newfoundland. Some of these later changed their name to Young (see: Family names of the Island of Newfoundland – Young and ).
I get over 50 DNA matches to the Lejeune name and Nova Scotia many leading back to Germain LeJeune (son of Pierre Lejeune dit Briard) born in Port Royal or Pisiguit, Acadia (inland from Halifax, see map below).
I also get a number of matches to Lejune, le June and Young from Sandy Point, Newfoundland but what is most interesting are the 68 of non name specific matches I get to Sandy Point. My Newell cousins also get a large number of matches to this town. What makes this unusual is that Sandy Point was a small (now abandoned), isolated, community on the opposite side of Newfoundland from where my relatives lived! However, in the 1700’s and 1800’s, Sandy Point was the commercial center of the West Coast of Newfoundland ( https://www.townofstgeorges.com/town_history.php). Sandy Point is described as having a small population of multi-cultural and multi-lingual residents including Mi’kmaq, English, Jersey, and French residents (Wiki). Searching my matches for sandy Point I find names like Picot, Messervey (Meserve), Renouf, leRoux and Lefillatre which are all names associated with the Channel Islands (Channel Islanders were early settlers of Conception Bay).
The Channel Island web Site https://www.theislandwiki.org/ provides the following info on LeJeune on the islands:
A Jersey Post stamp in the 1985 Huguenot Heritage series depicts Lord St Helier, born Francis Jeune, suggesting that his family was of French Huguenot refugee origin, and this is supported by the entry for his father in George Balleine‘s Biographical Dictionary of Jersey, which says that the family arrived in Jersey during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603). This was the first wave of Huguenot refugees which followed the Massacre of St Bartholomew in 1572. However, the family name was known in Jersey in the late 13th century, long before the arrival of Huguenots. The name is also found in the Assize Roll of 1309.
It should be noted that the Jeune spelling of the name is more common than le Jeune on the Channel Islands with le Jeune identified as a variant (see: theislandwiki Web Site). I get two matches for the Jeune name on the Channel Islands, both with Marguerite Jeune born c 1660 at St Martin, Jersey, Channel Islands who married Jacques Messervy from Jersey. Marguerite and Jacques had a daughter Elizabeth Messervy born 1686 at St Martin, Jersey. Both trees have this Elizabeth marrying a Clement Noel from Jersey. In both cases the tree show this Clement as the father of Clement Noel of Freshwater, Carbonear, Newfoundland. Both of my Newell cousins have matches to the Jeune name on Jersey (most 18th Century) but one does have the same Marguerite Jeune. Peter Noel has a Clement (born 1714/15) son of Clement Noel and Elizabeth Messervy in his Noels of Newfoundland tree.
One might expect that these protestant families from Montbéliard (Boutilier and Langille) might not mix with the earlier Acadian families (e.g. le Jeune); however, there is evidence to indicate that they eventually did.
On September 25, 1812, John Young [LeJeune] married Catherine Boutilier. Catherine was the daughter of Frederic Nicholas Boutilier; in 1807, Frederic Boutilier and his family relocated from Lunenburg County to Cape Breton County. John Young was born at Petit Bras d’Or in 1793 to Charles “Joseph” LeJeune and Agathe LeJeune. Charles “Joseph” LeJeune was born on the Island of Miquelon in 1763, shortly after his family’s return to North America from La Rochelle, France. Charles “Joseph’s” parents, Joseph LeJeune and Martine LeRoy were deported from Isle Royale (Cape Breton Island) by the British following the fall of Louisbourg in 1758 (https://gallivanting.ca/john-young-and-catherine-boutilier/ ).
The LeJeune family is also linked to the Doiron family of Acadia which traces its roots back to Jean Doiron, born in France about 1649 (see Doiron Drouin section of this Web Site). He married Marie Anne Canol c. 1671 (note see Ancestry DNA Results Part II, The Old World section for more background information on the Canol name and links to Knol). Jean died between 28 April 1735 – 03 June 1736 at Ste-Famille de Pisiguit, Acadia. In 1740 a Philippe Doiron married Ursule le June linking this family with le Jeune. The most famous member of this family was Noel Doiron who was born at Port Royal, Acadia in 1684 and lived most of his childhood at Pisiquid (present day Falmouth, 18 km fromGrand Pré). By 1714, Doiron and his family were established in Noel, Nova Scotia. The Doiron family grew to include five sons and three daughters—one son died in Vila Noel before 1746. Doiron and his family were deported in 1758 and died when the ship they were on sank about 20 leagues from the coast of France; however, other branches of the Doiron family became established in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Quebec.