Have you ever heard the story that your family's name was changed at Ellis Island? The United States' most famous port of immigration is also, unfortunately, the source of one of the many popular myths of genealogy - one that is still perpetuated with regularity in the media. In actuality, inspection agents and Ellis Island rarely changed immigrants' names. That's not to say that mistakes weren't made, or that names weren't misspelled, but there is no known documented case of a name change occurring at Ellis Island, according to Marion Smith, senior historian for the immigration service.
The truth is, to be admitted to the United States, immigrants had to provide documentation from their country of origin. This information was used to compile passenger lists at the point abroad where the immigrant purchased his ticket. Once the immigrant arrived in the U.S., Ellis Island clerks were given these previously compiled passenger manifests, and checked off the names against the arriving immigrants. There was no need for them to write down names based on what the immigrant told them. Many Ellis Island immigration officials were themselves foreign-born, and were assigned to inspect immigrant groups based on the languages with which they were familiar. Ellis Island also employed dozens of full-time interpreters to help translate for immigrants speaking in more obscure tongues.
That's not to say, of course, that your ancestors never changed their names. They just probably didn't do it at Ellis Island. Many immigrants personally chose to change their names at some point - often to "fit in" - something done by my Toman ancestors soon after their arrival from Poland (even though I'm still not sure why Thomas is all that much easier of a name than Toman). But if your family name was changed at some point, it can probably be attributed to something other than a lazy or callous immigration official. Trace your family back to the immigrant ancestor and see for yourself!
Interesting. My Surname dropped the umlaut over the U when my ancestors came to America from Switzerland.
My girlfriend is Italian, and both of her parents’ surnames where altered slightly (The O and A, respectively, at the end of their names where changed to Is.)
Surprisingly, When multiple family members came over, only her direct branch was changed to the I-ending.
I totally disagree. My great uncle came from Italy. He was told by a clerk at Ellis Island that American names don’t end in the letter i and it was changed. Of course it wasn’t documented. Most immigrants barely spoke English, so how could they complain? Someone either hasn’t done their research or is trying to cover up the haphazard way immigrants were processed through Ellis Island. There are several such instances in my family, but I hesitate to reveal names in this forum due to privacy. Ms Smith is free to contact me for clarification.
With all due respect to our ancestors, I find that most of the tales of name changed never occurred on Ellis Island & Castle Garden. I haven’t found any evidence of name tampering during the processing of my ancestors through Ellis Island and Castle Gardens. Not one!
Names have evolved overtime for various reasons; simplicity in spelling and pronunciation are the most common reasons.
Names may not have been changed at Ellis Island but they were certainly changed at school. My mother arrived at school with the name Olecia (which translates to Alexandria) Mandzuk.
Her teacher, said “”What kind of name is that and told her her name was now Elsie” and an I was added to make Mandziuk as there had been a family in school who spelled their name and that was therefore deemed the correct spelling. She actually assumed her name had been registered as Elsie and that Olecia was just what her parents called her until she applied for her pension.
My aunt Olha, had her name registered as janet as the person who took the registrations said that Olha was not a real name. However when she went to school she gave her name as Olha and the teacher told her that the proper spelling and pronunciation was Olga which is the named she used throughout life and never used the Janet on her birth certificate or Olha that her parents named her.
An aunt Ula (different side obviously) became Ida at school, as Ula was not an English name, but later when she insisted as she got older that it was not Ida but Ula it became Una which name stuck with her throughout life.
My grandfather left Norway in 1893 with the farm name Hagen being his last name. He left on another ship from Southampton, England to come into New York. His last name is Andreasen – which was his middle name in Norway – on the ship record coming into Ellis Island.
So this could be a reason some names got changed – at other ports.
Also, when my grandfather got to South Dakota, the people there changed his first name to Nels from Nils the way it was spelled in Norway! So there can be lots of reasons peoples names changed!
MaryLee
My grandfather worked at Ellis Island as an interperter & he spoke 7 languages. His German last name was Schnor (also on his death certificate) but his daughters “Americanized” it on their own to Schorr. Don’t know why the double “r”? In the 1930 census, the sisters were Schorr & he, in a different location, was Schnor. Many stories about immigrants changing to more “American Sounding Names” later because people thought it would be easier to find work. A lot of death certificates may have the correct spelling to agree with their birth certificates. My point is that before WWII, people just did what they wanted to do; no legal work required.
Catholic School Nuns were notorious for changing family names and first names. I had 8 years of an excellent Catholic education by nuns but they did what they wanted to do. My point being that officials at Ellis Island changed names is a well-documented myth and that after Ellis Island, people’s names were changed for various reasons some of which were related to different hand writing styles, pens with thick ink and trying to make the whole experience easier.
It’s much more simple than this.
Even if an immigration official told an immigrant that their name was unusual, and the immigrant started using whatever name the immigrant official suggested, it wasn’t the immigrant official who changed the name. It was the immigrant. On the official’s advice.
We’re talking about a time where the government didn’t track your every movement. Your name was whatever you declared your name to be. If you learned at Ellis Island that your name was slightly unusual in America, and you might have a better shot if you went by a different name, and so started using that name immediately, you changed your name. You might later tell your children that your name was changed at Ellis Island (which would be true) and you might even tell them that an Ellis Island official told you to change your name (which might also be true.) But to say that an Ellis Island offical changed your name would imply they had that power. They didn’t.
If you think an Ellis Island official changed your ancestor’s name, do you think that the official filed a Name Change Document with the US Government? I don’t think anybody really believes that.
Of course there is no documented case of a name change, because that would require documentation to have been filed, by definition. I’m sure that many of the stories of immigrants learning that their names were unusual are true.But if you feel it wasn’t your ancestor’s decision to change the surname, have you made the decision to change it back?
My maternal grandparents names were changed at Ellis Island at the insistence of a clerk. The proof is the ship’s registry. When they left the old country their names were spelled Kos. They were strongly informed by the Ellis Island clerk that their name was too short for America so a 2nd “s” was added. They became citizens as Koss. My uncle, during WW II, told this story to his commanding officer. His dog tags were changed from Koss to Kos as the officer had a similar family story and thought the name should be restored. I have both sets of dog tags. I heard the Ellis Island story from my grandmother, great grandmother and great uncle who were there. Immigrants were terrified of being returned so they were not going to argue with the clerks. The name variation was their price for freedom.
I have examined many actuall pursurs manifests & Immigration lists. I have never seen even a “typo” Never a real change. The only one wrong I ever found was a teenage girl evidently holding the baby of an adjacent fammily. & that was (line thru) corrected.
The intake folks were bureaucrats, they transferred the ships lists to their forms. Changes if made were made at court houses, naturalization process, or just by gradual Americanizing.
My grandfather born in 1890 personally told me that the agent at Ellis Island changed his name from the original documentation from Yussel Kazimierek to Joe Kasmer in 1909 when he immegrated to Detroit at the ripe old age of 18. He lived with that name until his death at the ripe old age of 87. He tlke me many details about the name change…he would have known. He told me directly many times.
Some of the tales may have come about when Jewish families because of the Czar’s military regulations, gave the family name (such as black) in German to 2 sons, in Russian to 2 sons, in Hebrew to 2 sons and in another language to a further 2 sons. This happened in several very well known Jewish families , I know about. However, the Czars people caught on and the sons with papers from the Rabbi’s fled to various countries, with a mix of names.