LaPorte vs La Port

Question

My mother (maiden name LaPorte) always believed she was of French and German ancestry. I discovered recently that the German side of her family was actually Irish. I'm trying to find out more about her "French" side of the family. Her father, Winston LaPorte was from Iowa so French seems to make sense. However, her gg grandfather, John (b. abt 1819 in Ohio), seems to have spelled his last name La Port and listed on the 1880 census that both his parents were born in Maryland. I can't find anything else about his parents. I researched the surname La Port and it looks like it is an Old English surname and coming from Maryland (in my mind) would make more sense to be of English ancestry.

Her sister just is waiting on results of a DNA test which could just help us eliminate France if it doesn't show up, but I was curious if anyone knew more about these surnames or had any suggestions of how I could solve this mystery.

Comments

I don't know if this will help, but have you found people you know are relatives yet they used different spellings? I have that with two surnames. E.g., one family line decided to drop a letter. (And then, of course, some folks had their names changed at Ellis Island and some switched up the name to make it less ethnic or more "American.")

My bio father's name was LaPorte, yet his father was from Sicily and that's from where it seems all my 24% Italian might stem. Ancestry didn't break out the France region (it might have been clumped in with, say, Germanic Europe), so I'm not sure how LaPorte fits with GF's profile. Yet.

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I am suppose to have a e on the end of my name but it got lost when my great grandfather died and his young widow with a 2 year old child (my grandfather) got remarried and changed her last name but not his and they mispelt it when she got his death certificate and there was no e. So I guess it stuck... I took a ancestry and there was only one person with the last name LaPorte on my match list. We could not figure out how we were related ... then one day the match was going thru his dads Bible and seen my great grandfather listed under the deaths page. Turns out my great grandfather was his uncle just was never told about him due to a tragic death. My dad always talked about the Lockport LaPortes and how we weren't related because they spelt thier name with a e.....but turns out we were in fact related. My match thought the name LaPorte was going to die with him as there were no hiers....I reassured him I had 6 brother with the name it will live on just without the e :) my great grandfather died was from pa. But my dad and me grew up in tonawanda ny. My match was a professor at a college in pa. Until his recent passing.i have screenshots of many things from the laport name.

Answer 1

https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=laporte

Most of the LaPorte's that came to New York, USA were from France. 

 Laporte Family Origin

• France (32)
• Italy (7)
• Haiti (3)
• Canada (2)
• Germany (2)
• Harti (2)

from the New York Passengers List

Comments

Surnamedb.com does not have LaPorte, but they do have Porte. There was a Hugo de Port in 1084. 

Porte

This name has three known origins. The first being locational from Port-en-Bessin in Calvados (Normandy). The first recording from this source occurs towards the end of the 11th century. The name may also be topographic for someone who lived near the gates of a town deriving from the Olde English pre 7th century "port" meaning a "gateway" or "entrance". In 1096, one Hugh de la (of the) Port gave land to the church of St. Peter at Gloucester. Finally, the name may derive from the Medieval English "port" (or the Latin "portus" meaning a "harbour" or "haven"). The name in this instance was given to a dweller in a harbour town. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Hugo de Port which was dated 1084, in the "Geld Roll of Devonshire" during the reign of King William 1, known as "The Conqueror" 1066 - 1087 Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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Read more: http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Porte#ixzz4l27CT9E8