Some surname spellings beginning with 'Z' appear contemporaneously in the Bremen area with equivalent surname spellings beginning with 'C'.  Some individuals are referenced at different times in the same area with both the 'Z' and 'C' spellings.  Many of the same inidviduals are referenced in differing documents at disparate times with completely disparate surname spellings.  In other words, the way a person's surname is spelled varies over time, especially over historical times when not everyone knew how to write, let alone how to spell correctly.

The table below summarizes the names & source documents found at a German name index web site.  The names were found in records from 1751 through 1800 in the Mecklenburg-Schwerin area.  The MKIB - MKIG coding identifies various locales where the marriage records and other church documents were found.  WFL - WFLL refers to Wolfenbüttel, Lower Saxony.  (There's a Wolfenbüttel just south of Braunschweig, both east-southeast of Hannover, which are all in Nieder Sachsen - northwest of Sachsen-Anhalt.)  Go to the web site to see the specifics.  The only significant tree found for this area is detailed at the CYRIAKS' Mecklenburg-Schwerin page.
 

spelling	MKIB	MKID	MKIE	MKIF	MKIG	WFL	WFLL
CILIX							yes
CIRIACS						yes
CIRIACUS						yes
CIRKLAU							yes
CIRIAK	yes				yes
CYRIAC						yes
Mecklenberg-	1stNamed	branches		BranchImages	spellings	Surnames
ZIERIACK					yes
ZIRCK		yes
ZIRIACK	yes
ZIRIACKS	yes	yes			yes
ZIRIAKS			yes
ZYRIACK		yes
ZYRIACKS				yes
spelling	MKIB	MKID	MKIE	MKIF	MKIG	WFL	WFLL

The brothers ZIRJACKS, Louis and Christian, emmigrated to Victoria, Texas in 1845 from Germany.  Both were blacksmiths.  Louis Ferdinand was born on January 28th, 1858, probably to one of these brothers, and died on December 9th, 1932.  An electronic footprint was found via the Beck Funeral Home Ledger, 1926-1936, page 66-1931, at the Welhausen Library in Yoakum, Texas.  Cousins of some descendents of these brothers have their own genealogy web site.  [ An obvious spelling change, based upon the infrequency of ZIRIACKS nowadays in favor of the ZIRJACKS spelling, is that when the name transferred to the USA, it changed slightly - changing in a place where the literate transcriber(s) of the era treated the "J" as done in spanish -- more like a "Y" than the hard "J (JAY)" used by english speakers --- these brothers' migration to Texas and its heavy spanish speaking population reinforces this theory. ]

One Charles C. Zirjacks, who died April 27th, 1944 and was married with two children and possibly at least two grandchildren, is referenced in a Federal lawsuit shown online at this link.  [ 2/9/09  ]

There were 17 Zirjacks in CA, KS, MO, TX & WA, 4 Ziriak (3 in MA, 1 in PA) and 3 Zyriek in AL found in the electronic white pages via the late 1990s era WWW.SNAP.COM.
The spellings page points to other hits on variations of the family names beginning with a Z - both past and present.

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Website link/location/URL: http://www.Cyriac-FHP.com/ziriacks.htm