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I'm new to the LeFevre research community, and I could use some help establishing my connection to the Morris County, New Jersey LeFevre family descended from 17th century immigrant Hippolyte LeFevre. My ggg grandfather Dennis McConnell, who was born about 1802 in New Jersey, was probably a direct male-line descendant of Hippolyte LeFevre through Hippolyte's grandson Minard LeFevre.
Although I have spent several years trying to fit Dennis into the numerous McConnell families linked to northwestern New Jersey, I have never found a really good fit for him among those families. About 2 ˝ years ago, one of my McConnell cousins, Robert, who is a direct male line descendant of Dennis McConnell, was DNA tested through the Clan Donald DNA project. Robert did not match anyone else in that project, which includes many men with the surname McConnell and many men with other surnames that are also variants of the name MacDonald. Later I recruited another McConnell cousin to join the project, and his results matched Robert's, but still neither matches anyone outside our known McConnell family. In fact, we have very few DNA matches within the databases, even when we look outside the Clan Donald DNA Project.
In June I visited the Morris County area, and I was able to visit for the first time a place called Raccoon Island, which an elderly McConnell relative had said was the home of our McConnell family many years ago. On the island I talked to an older resident who said something about seeing a map naming a family that owned the island many years ago. When I left the island, I visited a local library seeking that map. I don't think that I found that particular map, but I did get to look at a map that I had seen before with fresh eyes. I recognized the surname of the owner of Raccoon Island as a member of a neighboring family, and this was no surprise. The surprise came when I noticed the names of the owners of the neighboring island, Halsey Island. The owners of that island were listed on the map as “E. C. Hurd and Heirs of Wm B Lefever”; the name Hurd was familiar as a possible variant form of the name Lefeber, which is the name of one of the very few DNA matches for my cousins.
Another thing that struck me was that the name looked French to me. During the past couple of years, I have spent a lot of time learning about the use of DNA testing for genealogical purposes, and one of the things that I have learned is that a lot of men whose surname lines can be traced to the British Isles have been DNA tested, but men from most other places have not been tested in such numbers. In fact, the rate of testing among men from French lines has been particularly low, in part because French law tends to discourage such testing. So if you have a French heritage for your Y chromosome, you probably won't have nearly as many matches as somebody whose Y chromosome is from the British Isles.
I did do some quick research on the LeFevre family in New Jersey on the last day of my trip, but I didn't find anything to prove the connection that I now suspect so strongly. It's possible that a trip to the National Archives will help me prove the connection, but I'm also hoping to substantiate the connection with DNA evidence. If I can find a male LeFevre descended from Hippolyte LeFevre to test and the DNA is a good match, I'll be comfortable concluding that my Dennis was really a LeFevre, and I think that I might even be able to figure out his line of descent.
Because of the intense competition between DNA testing companies right now, there are some limited-time discount offers available that make testing much more affordable than it has been in the past. At least one of these offers expires late Sunday, and I would love to find a willing LeFevre DNA donor in time to take advantage of it. I would be happy to help with the order, which should probably be placed through the French Heritage DNA project.
Kirsten Saxe
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