The only Yank or Yanks I could find were from Germany.
Yanke
There is a Mary in the USA her husband is Nick and he was from Greece.
She was born in Ireland and her maiden name was Lane.
The 3 spellings of Yank Yanke and Yanks are not in the roostireland site, the Tithe records or Griffiths Valuation.
In familysearch they have some but in the mid 1800's and the 1900's
There was a Joseph Yank in Ancestry when I looked at the original Doc. it was Gank.
Another John Yank was John Black.
I would need more info as to where they went to.
Maggsie