Ezra Thompson Clark Family Organization

Explanation of Designators

The purpose is to attach symbols to names for identification of direct descendants from Ezra T. Clark and his wives, Mary and Susan. There were no children by third wife Nancy Areta Porter.

The late Ruth Young Knowlton, widow of Clark Sumway Knowlton (S331), and Sylvia Newton (M6A93) were the authors of this numbering system. To them is owed much gratitude for a very systematic method of keeping track of the ETC Family Organization.

A spouse of an ETC descendant shall be listed by a capital letter when there have been children by more than one spouse. Spouses are otherwise not listed on this chart. Example: Laura Blanche Clark (S9) married Mark Cook and they had three children before his death. Her first trio of children are listed as S for Susan Leggett Clark, Laura's mother, 9 for Laura's being the ninth child of Susan, M for Mark Cook, and 1,2,3 for birth order of this trio. Laura later married Joseph Askie Silver and they had three children before his death. This second trio of children would be S9J (for Joseph), and then 1,2,3. Laura had no children by third husband George Edward Cook.

A hyphen(-) is used when there have been more than ten children. David Patten Clark is M-11 (eleventh child of Mary and ETC). The twins, Afton and Alton, the eleventh and twelfth children of Nathan George Clark (S7) by his second wife Cleo Afton Call, are herewith listed as S7C-11 and S7C-12, respectively.

--JRC 1995--

Explanation of the ETC Family Crest

Symbols used for identifying families have a lengthy historical foundation. The twelve tribes of Israel were identified by individual markings which were perpetuated for many generations and even for centuries by some of those tribes. Coats of arms became prevalent during the Crusades when military units or families began what has come to be know as the science of heraldry. A study carried out in 1964 on nearly 100 Clark (Clarke, Clerke, Clerc, etc.) family coats of arms revealed none referable to the earliest-identified ET Clark progenitor.

This coat of arms was based upon the buffalo skull used by Brigham young and now know as the "bulletin of the plains." It is found in the Bureau of Information on Temple Square in Salt Lake City. In June 1847 Brigham young wrote on the skull's brow telling pioneers following behind him that all was well and that they were on the right track. Ezra T. Clark and family passed over the same trail one year later after having previously been assigned by President Young to stay in Winters Quarters Iowa to help the saints passing through.

The pentagon shape symbolizes symmetry, and one side for each of the five letters of the Clark name. The color, blue, suggest valor. The name, Clark, derives from the "clerk" found in each village in early England and Scotland to carry on business matters. It is significant that the town clerk was the only person in town who was certain to be literate besides the village priest.

Feel free to use this design for your own Clark family purposes.

--JRC 1970--