Document Record

Title

Jacob Keefer (1800-1875) papers

Identifier

lac_mikan_128355
MG 24-I33
Papers
Genealogy
Social history
oocihm.lac_mikan_128355

Document source

Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada

Language

English

Description

The Keefer family in North America traces its origins to a Huguenot Cooper of Paris, De Wald dit Tonnellier, who emigrated to Alsace around 1565 and changed his name to Kieffer. Two sons of Samuel Kieffer (d. 1744), a peasant farmer in the Strasbourg area, emigrated to New Jersey in 1749, and the Canadian branch of the family descends from the elder, George Kieffer (b.1739), who was a loyalist. After loyalist George Kieffer's death, and the confiscation of his property, his sons George Keefer (1773 - 1858) and Jacob Keefer (1775 - 1814) moved to Upper Canada in 1790 and became the first settlers at Thorold in Welland County. George Keefer, Sr., (1773 - 1858) had four of his sons by Catherine Lampman (1778 - 1813), the first of his four wives. His second son, Jacob Keefer (1800 - 1875), was a Thorold businessman and Post-Master who held a number of offices in local government and married Christina Theresa Grant, the only child of another local businessman and office holder, Robert Grant (d. 1838), a Scotsman from Inverness. Maplehurst, at 14 Saint David's Road West in Thorold, is a landmark of that community and the former home of Jacob Keefer. The mansion sits on the highest rise in the city offering a commanding view of the community below.
This collection consists of a journal and a ledger of marriage licenses and customs information.
No finding aid appears to be available on the microfilm reels.
Microfilm reel C-4499 is of a journal kept by Jacob Keefer from 1846 to 1855. Microfilm reel H-1811, which shares information with other collections, which means that researchers will have to search around for the Keefer-related material, is a marriage licenses and customs blotter book from 1825 to 1874, apparently kept by Keefer.

URL

https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_mikan_128355