Genealogy is fun, they say…
In some ways I could not agree more. Genealogy is fun, but it is also confusing and frustrating at times. Trying to unwrap the lives of our ancestors many years past is trying. My Great Great Grandfather, Joseph J. Allard is no different. And recently I found out maybe I don’t know as much as I thought I did.
Joseph J. Allard you might think settles a lot of questions, and adding his profession of being a farmer would narrow down confusion even more. But let me first tell you about Joseph J. Allard in the Town of Scott, Bay Settlement, Wisconsin before 1850.
Quickly you find there are two Joseph Allard’s in this area. Joseph J. Allard and Joseph G. Allard. Both immigrated from Canada, both are farmers and both have wives named Adelaide. This discovery causes one to be very cautious in reading records. Trying to keep separate who is who. And then records find cases like this.
A quit claim deed was found using FamilySearch, full text search whereby on 12 March 1853, Joseph G. Allard with his wife Adelaide file a quit claim (Vol. T. pp 204-205), for the consideration of $100, sold to Joseph Allard the land W14 of the E1/4, Sec. 7, T24N R22E, 40 acres.
As what historical records indicate, the majority of cases Joseph J. Allard always appears in documents without the use of his middle initial. While Joseph G. always uses his middle initial. Fortunately I have some other details that would point to this is Joseph J. Allard’s purchase.
But even this gets some additional confusion in future years. On 15 Dec. 1887, Joseph F. Allard and his wife Ageline, both of Sturgeon Bay, Door County, Wisconsin are selling this very land to Nicolas Schilling, of the Town of Scott, Brown County for $1,400. This introduced another Joseph Allard with a wife having a similar name.
Digging back I found a Joseph F. Allard, born around 1813 in Canada on the 1880 census in the Town of Scott. Now we have three Joseph’s separated by a middle initial and all have now held the very land pictured above.
But the mystery doesn’t end there.
In patent numbers #2357 and #2320, both 10 Aug. 1837 covering three areas were purchased by Antoine Allard.
One would naturally wonder how this fits into the Joseph Allard questions. Caution when doing genealogy is to not dismiss anything. Sometimes what you dismiss comes back to haunt you moving forward. This was precisely the case with Antoine Allard.
On 6 June 1872, Antoine Allard to Adelaide Allard (+ Joseph her husband) and bound to a support obligation the E1/2 of remaining W1/2 SE1/4, being the two lower boxes in the above patent picture. This was a monkey wrench. Adelaide and husband Joseph; to which Joseph was this being given to? Joseph J., Joseph G.? No way to know from the deed’s wording in any way.
This deed isn’t unique just in which Joseph, to figure out which Adelaide received it. But this is land given to Adelaide. Antoine Allard, both Joseph’s are Allard’s so Antoine was not likely giving this land to a son. It was being given to a woman, the husband was secondary to the deed transaction.
Joseph J. Allard married Adelaide Lafond. So no connection there to the Allard surname. But this also could mean possibly Joseph G. Allard married and Adelaide Allard? It would not be the first time something like this happened during these years. I haven’t researched Joseph G. Allard in any context as he is not directly connected to my ancestry.
The University of Stevens Point once had an extensive history of Joseph G. Allard online, but unfortunately today it is no longer available.
But this now means I will need to dig into Joseph G. Allard’s genealogy to find out more to determine who this deed was given to.
Here is why genealogy is never about vital records. It is our ancestors stories of the lives they lived. Details get confusing, and in 1872, not one person did not know which Adelaide received that land, nor did they question why she was given it. But now, 152 years later I need to dig into details to sort out the story of my ancestors.