Allard = Pork?

While conducting research on our Allard family line, I have found that there have bee many transpositions of the name.  These include: Alard, Alare, Alart, and Halare.  But Pork?  I highly questioned this.  Taken literally, the translation of Lard in French means pork, but who would be so literal?

I found this information when I was looking for marriages of the children of Pierre and Josephte (Touin) Allard who came to Colchester (Winooski), Vermont in 1825 from St. Ours, Richelieu, Quebec, Canada.  I found several spouses names through death records.  I could not find the Allard family in the 1830 census for Winooski, but they were in other town and county records.  Since they were a very prominent Winooski family, how could they not be in the records?  After I checked state records and Colchester town records for these marriages, I started looking into church parish records.  I knew a few of the children were married at St. Mary’s in Burlington, Vermont.  Checking early in St. Mary’s Church records, I found some of my answers under Allard, but not all.  John Fisher, founding Library member, and David Blow, the archivist at the Bishop Brady Center, suggested I look under the the literal name change of “Pork.”  Low and behold, under Pork I found the marriage of Peter Pork (a son of Pierre and Josephte) and Sophia Mazaret on 1 April 1839 at St. Mary’s.  Witnesses to the marriage were Charlotte Cutter and Amelia Allard (sister of Peter), who later married Peter Villemaire, Sr. Under the Pork name, I also found several baptisms.  This proved that the name Pork, used in this case, was our Allard family.  Rechecking the census records for 1830, this family appears under the family head of Peter Pork.

I would have never found this information without the suggestion that Lard = Pork, as odd as it seemed, and then checking the records. So, remember:

1. Certainly don’t leave any stone unturned, no matter how far fetched the notion.
2. Look in the Library’s “Name Change” compilation book for possible variants and translations of the name you are looking for.
3. When stumped, present the conundrum to other members.  A new perspective can open up an entirely different and worthwhile avenue of research.

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This story was shared with us by Janet S. Allard, member #48, in our free semi-annual member publication from the Vermont French-Canadian Genealogical Society, LINKS.   To receive more stories like this, as well as a wealth of information on genealogies, histories, documents, research, found photos, maps, and charts, join us!