Hi all, Thanks to everyone who has joined this discussion on the 'CLARK' spellings. All records of my family appear to also follow the change from CLERK to CLARK around the early 1800's. I realize that spellings change over time. Anyone have any ideas about what could have prompted this change from CLERK to CLARK? Perhaps greater influence from the English? I would imagine that the pronunciation wouldn't have changed between the different spellings? (Are they both pronounced the same by a native of Scotland?). Just to put an interesting twist on this all. In Australia if I were pronouncing the Surname CLARK or CLERK I would distinguish between them by sounding the 'A' or 'E'. However if a person is a 'clerk' (a person who performs clerical work) then we pronounce it sounding the 'A' (i.e. 'klärk' apparently from the British - according to my dictionary). Anyway, sorry if I'm getting off the track, but I do find all this rather interesting... Kind regards, Cameron Clark. Melbourne, Australia. > > Subject: Clark/Clerke > Date: Tue, 1 Aug 2000 11:44:08 +1000 > From: "Mike Simpson" <agene@tpg.com.au> > To: BORDER-L@rootsweb.com > > I have been following the discussion re the spelling of CLERK/CLARK/CLARKE > with interest as I have CLARK connections just over the border in Norham. > > I have done a count of the 1881 census for the Eastern border counties, > Berwick, Peebles, Roxburgh and Selkirk and the spellings are as follows:- > CLARK 478 > CLERK 9 > CLARKE 19 > So it would appear that by 1881 the spelling had normalised to CLARK and > that CLERK had almost disappeared. > > Best regards - Mike Simpson, Penrith, NSW, Australia > Email: agene@bigfoot.com > HomePage: http://www.bigfoot.com/~agene > > ______________________________