Kirkman --> Kirk

[smouse]

Hi

Just looking for some thoughts on this one.  I have found a baptism record of a Daniel Kirkman in Stapenhill (1813).  Nothing strange about this but when I looked him up on the 1841 census, he and his siblings and other Kirkmans in the area who may or may not be related are all calling themselves "Kirk".

So why would this happen?   

Any ideas welcome.

Other than the general writing/spelling issues the only other thing I can think of is that they may have been Jewish and deliberately changed the name to fit in more but did this ever happen?

Damian

[suzard]

Maybe it's a Derbyshire "thing"

I know of a Hartshorne family in Derbys -some of the family called themselves Hart.
It's still happening today - in the same village - there are Harts who's nephews are Hartshornes -you don't really know who is who!
In my  family some are Thornhills-some Thornley (even to present day)

Suz