How do you trace a surname if the spelling is an uncommon varient of a common name?

The surname is Clarke but in the past I haven't had much luck with tracing back with that side of my family. The "e" on the end makes it very difficult because to me it seems rare compared to just Clark which is a very common English surname. A while back I had a genealogy project and I asked my father and he had said that his grandfather had immigrated from Ireland and it was originally Clark but the E was added when he came to America. I'm not sure if he was being completely serious but his grandmother's maiden name was O'Mahoney which to me sounds like the epitome of Irish names. I guess my question really is has anyone ever heard of Clark spelled with an E at the end before? Maybe it is more popular than I think.

How do you trace a surname if the spelling is an uncommon varient of a common name?
You need to understand that here in the UK in the 18th %26amp; 19th centuarys the only people who could read were the verey well off and the Clergy. The Clergy were University educated but could not always understand what was said to them.





As a result you will find the same peoples surname spelt different ways, you just have to learn to use your best instints and take nothing for granted, Good Luck and Good Hunting.
Reply:Don't trace a surname. Trace the PERSON, who remains the same,irregardless of how the name got written in a record.


In other words... find grandpa. Find his facts, including possible census records that should indicate his place of birth.
Reply:Wendy is right. Trace the ancestor, not the name. Actually,the 1916 uprising or as the Irish call it the Risin, one of the signers of the proclamation of the Provisional Government to the People of Ireland was a Thomas J. Clarke. No doubt there are Clark or Clarke in England, Ireland and Scotland. The adding of the E or removing of the E doesn't mean much. Small spelling differences in surnames frequently happened. Actually, I don't believe in times past, people were too concerned with exact spelllings of names. I had an uncle whose given name was Clarke. He was named for a grandfather. On his father's death certificate it shows his father's name as John Clark


Tomlin, but i put him in my family tree as John Clark(e) Tomlin because I am not sure just exactly how he spelled it.
Reply:Hi I would say that Clarke is English.. And after coming to America they dropped the "E".. Doesn't seem right that it would be Irish maybe you father did'nt really know and did'nt want to tell you that :)





Definition: Cleric, clerk, or scholar - one who can read and write. Also from the Gaelic "Mac a' Chlerich/Cleireach"; son of the cleric or, sometimes, clerk. During the Middle Ages, the common pronunciation of -er was -ar, so the man who sold items was the marchant, and the man who kept the books was the clark. At the time, the primary members of the literate class were the clergy, which in minor orders were allow to marry and have families. The term clerk eventually (clark) came to designate any literate man.





Surname Origin: English





Alternate Surname Spellings: CLARKE, CLERK, CLERKE





Hope this helps you ...
Reply:I don't think it's that unusual, we have a family that live across the road from us with an e, on the end of Clarke.


We have Brown in our family the ancestors that came from Scotland had the e at the end of their name, the English side of the family spelt it without the e.