YOUNG (LEJEUNE)

Some YOUNG families are either of Acadian or French descent in the St. George's Bay area, have changed their name from LEJEUNE. Records show that Alexis LEJEUNE and his family, from Bras d'Or, Cape Breton Island, settled in St. George's at the same time as the JESSOs, in 1830, then moved to Sandy Point. Certainly by 1839 the name, in its English form, was well established. The listing notes a Benjamin, James, Francis Sr., Isaac, Lixey (Alexis, Alexandre), James and a John YOUNG, the first six of whom are given as natives of Cape Breton, the last as a native of St. Pierre. This last YOUNG, John, was 38 years old, and had been at Sandy Point for eight years. The haphazard spelling of the names testifies either to the little education of their bearers, or, more probably, the little knowledge of French of the document's author, but in any case, it is clearly LEJEUNE that the forms LEGEUNE and LEGUNE are trying to reproduce. While LEJEUNE seems to have given way entirely to YOUNG, the name is second only to WHITE in its frequency on the west coast. It is ranked among the 76 most common Acadian names.