From a different prospective:
Let me start by saying that yours is both a noble albeit a hopeless quest. In most cases history, living situations, and factual information, such as the evolution of family names, is generally tossed to the wayside.
People in Europe at the time of the French Regime (Canada), lived under a feudal system. Land worked by serfs and vassals was held by feudal Lords in compensation for military service. This peasantry did not possess family names but identified with the Lord of the manor. This is why most if not all families can trace their families, back to European nobility. Feudalism, was also practiced in New France. Hence, they became known simply as offspring of their fathers. The practice was simply to hyphenate their name in front of their father’s name. In the British Isles they added son to the father’s name (i.e. Johnson etc.). The Gaelic would preface the father’s name by Mac, Mc, or as in Ireland simply preface the ancestor’s name by O’.
During the industrial revolution, it became common to associate one’s self with the family guild, occupation, or situation. Therefore, names like Carpenter, Sawyer, Fisher, Mason and in our own case Firlot became the norm.
The following is an excerpt from my Webster International Dictionary.



The following is an excerpt from the Oxford International Dictionary:



In case this is obliterated in the transmission it can be found in any International dictionary.
You must admit that the above spelling is closer to the present spelling, than any of the ones you have listed.
The history of our part of the province is that a great deal of trade in agricultural, fishery and lumber products was carried out between our coastal communities and Great Britain, in the early and mid nineteenth century. Ships returning would accommodate immigrants at extremely low rates. Consequently, immigrants arrived at any number of small communities along the coast.
The area directly behind Dalhousie was obviously, settled by Scottish immigrants. The communities still retain their Scottish names to this day, although the present day population is mostly French speaking. The place names of Balmoral, Dundee, Glencoe, Glen Levit, are all names to be found in the Grampian Mountains of Scotland. Then Islands named Fraser, Duncan, McLeod, Ferguson can’t fail to attest to this.
Most of these Scottish immigrants were trades people and could not find work in that area. Work for tradesmen such as: carpenters, sawyers, millwrights, cartwrights, wheelwrights, shipbuilders, blacksmiths, coopers, was, however, available on the Gaspé coast. Thus, they moved over there and left a legacy of Scottish names on the shores of the Gaspé Peninsula.
The information available to us come primarily: from ships manifests, R. C. Church records and census records. Ships records routinely listed people as servants, Indented servants, and apprentices to a specific individual. Their own name seldom appears. If they were not of the Catholic persuasion then no record of them would exist until they married into a Catholic family and possibly changed religion. If they were landless and not a householder, chances are they would not appear in the census records.
It is my contention that this family arrived here in some form of servitude mentioned above. It is a recognized fact that it was common, for persons to be indented servants for a given number of years, to the person who paid their passage.
Let us consider that this Jacques Frelat was illiterate, and the Priest was equally illiterate to the world outside his own profession and he spoke mostly French.
He would automatically interpreted Jock to be Jacques. Taking into account the unfamiliar Scottish highland brogue, he would spell the second name as best he could.
The Scottish use of the name “Jock” is the equivalent of our “Jack” and is a nickname for John. Once again, I refer to the international dictionary. The word Jock and Firlot are not normally found in American Collegiate dictionaries, hence the international.
Church records have been so corrupted by various factions over the years, that the government will no accept them as proof of anything, most notably as a certificate of birth. Government documents until recently were no better. Anyone could change any information, to their own liking. This very thing occurred in my family. Someone along the way changed my sister’s name, to a more acceptable French spelling. I can recall the nuns getting her to replace the “K” with a “C” but I no idea they had carried it any further. The result was that for a number of years she could not get a birth certificate. The records in Fredericton showed only my father, mother, brother and myself. It was only after persistent pressure was exerted, that they finally found her. She was listed by herself, with no parental or sibling information. The information on date and place of birth was correct. The K in Katherine had been changed to a C and Furlotte had been changed to Ferlotte. I am happy to say that she is now listed, as having been my sister albeit, she didn’t revert to the “K”.
In summary, I want to remind you. Surnames were not always family names. They designated a variety of different associations or connections. These included district of origin (Savoy, this district doesn’t become part of France until 1813.), guilds, occupations, titles, clans, or simply associations.
Over time we adapt to differences that we don’t even know existed otherwise, or that we refuse to except ever did. A good example is the celebration of one’s birthday rather than one’s name day. To celebrate one’s birthday was once considered to be a pagan ritual. In the French language, there is still no one word to define birthday. The most commonly used word “fête” means the feast day of the saint whose name you share. These conventions have been so entrenched in our society that we will continue to misuse the meaning of this word and eventually the meaning will be changed to accommodate the contemporary meaning.
This is in essence is what has happened to surnames. There are presently families named Carpenter, Sawyer, Cooper, Conner...(another word that can only be found in an international dictionary). who have not practiced these trades for generations. This can also be said of families that were surfs, to the feudal Lord of the fief on which they resided and to whom they were obligated. This is the problems we encounter when we try to trace a family’s European connections and why they all seem to stem from nobility.
I still maintain that it matters not who one’s ancestors were that counts, but who you yourself are. It is my personal opinion that to think otherwise demonstrates a sense of displeasure in being who you are. These false aggrandizement will not make you what you obviously are not.
I must qualify the above statement by stating that a research of several past generations could provide valuable genetic information, but for this you would have to research more than just a name.
Genealogy must conform with history, to do otherwise is nothing more than the creation of a fable. There is truth in history if you look for consensus among various authors, who have conducted independent research. Truth in history cannot be found in isolation. I have found that novels of a particular period can something shed light on and ascertain the validity of the historian’s facts that are presented, for various periods of history.