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CLEAVES Family History
This surname is of topographic origin and derives from the Olde English pre 7th Century "clif" or "clive" meaning a slope, riverbank or cliff. The surname is first recorded in the latter half ofthe 11th Centruy, (see below). One, Alecok del Clif appears in the 1274 "court Rolls of the Manor of Wakefield", Yorkshire and a John del Clyfes is entered in the same rolls in 1315. In the modern idiom, the name has at least ten spelling variations including Cliff(e), Clive, Cleave(s), Cleeve(s), Cleve, Cleft etc..Who have we missed?
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