Clan Determination

[gilmore]

If you want to determine with certainty which clan, if any, your ancestors were associated with, there is no substitute for the arduouous work of tracing your family back one generation at a time without skipping any or making leaps of faith or hope.

There are, however, a couple of resources that can give you clues where it may be profitable to look, and where it might be a waste of time.

One is Y chromosome DNA testing. For how this works, go to www.familytreeDNA.com and take a look at their FAQ. I notice that there is a Clark Surname Project here http://www.familytreedna.com/surname...&projecttype=S whose homepage is here: http://www.htmlsd.com/

If you decide to have your DNA tested, there is a discount if you go thorugh a surname project.

There is another way to look at UK genealogy painted with a broad brush and that is through demographics, using a surname profiler search engine maintained by the National Trust. Clark is listed here http://www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk...y=GB&type=name thos I don't know if you can go to it directly. You may have to go to http://www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk/default.aspx then click on Start a Surname Search, enter your name, and click the 1881 census to see where most people with your surname were living in that year. And prepare yourself for a dissappointment. Virtually all Clarkes are shown in England, well south of the Scottish Border, centered around Bristol. Clark without an e is shown as more evenly distributed between Scotland and England.