Leffew DNA Project
This posting is to announce the formation of a Leffew DNA Project.Please visit the project's website at http://azstrong.tripod.com/leffewdnaprojecthttp://azstrong.tripod.com/leffewdnaproject for details.
Although this is a yDNA project and thus primarily focuses on male descendants with the Leffew surname, our first participant is a direct line female descendant of the only proven daughter of Stephen and Elizabeth Lefew/Lephew of Rockingham Co., NC.As a direct line female descendant, her mtDNA test willl hopefully provide genetic proof for the many Leffew family stories that the family, presumably through the matriarch Elizabeth, is part Cherokee.
As to yDNA testing, it is hoped that the project will help answer questions such as follows.
Are all U. S. Leffews descended from Stephen Lefew/Lephew of Rockingham Co., NC, or are there other Leffew lineages we do not know about?
Who is our immigrant Leffew ancestor, if it was not Stephen, and what was his country of origin?(Note that your project administrator does not believe our immigrant ancestor was Isaac Leffeure, a Huguenot of 1700 Manakin Town.My reasoning appears on my website at http://azstrong.tripod.com/jd_letha/legacy/409.htm.http://azstrong.tripod.com/jd_letha/legacy/409.htm.)Matches with a similar surname may lead us to the immigrant ancestor.
What is your exact Leffew lineage?Many Leffews are unable to trace their family back to a specific son of Stephen Lefew/Lephew.With enough participation, we may be able to identify genetic patterns that are unique to a particular branch.Thus, for example, descendants of Pleasant Henry Leffew of Roane Co., TN, may finally be able to determine whether his father was Elias Leffew of Franklin Co., VA, or perhaps instead Joseph Leffew of Grainger Co., TN.(Your administrator is a descendant of Joseph Leffew and his daughter, Phebe, who lived for a time with Pleasant and who married Thomas Majors, a neighbor.)
Testing may also help those Leffews whose earliest Leffew ancestor was a stepchild who adopted the Leffew name as his own, and also those Leffews who descend from an unmarried Leffew daughter.Testing in such cases may yield matches with surnames of neighbors of your Leffew ancestor and thus provide leads as to the true paternal bloodline.
If you are a male Leffew, please consider joining our project.If you are a female Leffew or a female or male descendant of a female Leffew, please consider recruiting a male Leffew from your branch of the family for testing.
Robert Strong
Administrator of the Leffew DNA Project
More Replies:
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Re: Leffew DNA Project
Darrell Leffew 9/05/10