Mathieu (Toney) LeTourneur (abt. 1721 - aft. 1772)

Descendants

Died after 1772 after about age 51 in Nova Scotia [uncertain]

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Matthew (Toney) LeTourneur is an Acadian. Join: Acadians Project Discuss: ACADIA

Biography

Captain Toney was a chief of the Pictou County, Nova Scotia, band of the Mi'kmaq First Nation. The title "Captain" was often given to Acadian allies of the Mi'kmaq through the French and Indian wars. Captain Toney was a Frenchman (possibly Tourneur or LeTourneur) living among the Mi'kmaq who acted as their negotiator for the 1761 treaty ending hostilities. He may have been one of the Acadians evicted by the British expedition burning Tatamagouche in 1755. The Toney River ten kilometers east of River John was named for him.^[1]

Notes

Patterson mentions a Ledurney among the early inhabitants of Tatamagouche. This could be a corruption of LeTourneur. Date of birth estimated from assumed age of 40 when he acted as peace treaty negotiator. Date of death estimated from Patterson's mention of Ledurney among the early Huguenot settlers of Tatamagouche.

DNA Notes

Family Tree DNA's Acadian and Amerindian DNA project listing Y-chromosome haplogroup R1b or R-L47 for the Toney surname offers confirmation of French ancestry for Captain Toney's Mi'kmaq descendants.^[2]

I have found no paper record of my 5G-grandmother, Captain Toney's wife. In view of Captain Toney's standing among the Mi'kmaq, I assumed he might have married a Mi'kmaq, suggested to be a daughter of the Pictou Landing First Nation Band Chief. Since most early intermarriage was between European men and Mi'kmaq women, Metis mitochondrial DNA of the era was predominantly First Nations' haplogroups A, B, or C. A direct matrilineal descendant of Captain Toney and his wife has mitochondrial haplogroup M1b1, thought to have originated with the African people of Timbuktu. The haplogroup is today relatively common among people of Spain and Portugal, suggesting it may be a remainder of the Moorish occupation of the Iberian Peninsula more than a thousand years ago. It seems likely Captain Toney's wife was descended from a Portuguese fishing family, although her family may have lived as Mi'kmaq for several generations. An interesting possibility would be a descendant of the 200 hundred people from the Azores who settled on Cape Breton in 1525. There is no record of the colony after 1570, suggesting survivors may have integrated into the local Mi'kmaq band about 150 years, or five generations, before the birth of Captain Toney's wife. Although I did not inherit her mitochondrial DNA, I inherited a segment of her DNA in chromosome 3 which has been identified as sub-Sahara African.^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ Patterson, George A History of the County of Pictou, Nova Scotia (1877) Dawson Brothers, Montreal
2. ↑ [https://www.familytreedna.com/public/AcadianAmerIndian?iframe=yresults FamilyTree DNA Results
3. ↑ AL Wellman