>From the Ellis Island website: Ellis Island was in operation from 01 Jan 1892 through 1954. I easily located my great grandmother's entrance through Ellis Island in about 1905. Couldn't locate my great grandfather's entrance until I realized that he entered the US before Ellis Island was in operation. There were several entry ports into the US. Boston (East Coast) and San Francisco (West Coast) were large entry ports used by many Azoreans to enter the US. I located my grandfather going directly from the Azores to Boston. The Ellis Island website notes this interesting information: "A myth persists that government officials on Ellis Island compelled immigrants to take new names against their wishes.[24] In fact, no historical records bear this out. Federal immigration inspectors were under strict supervision and were more interested in preventing inadmissible aliens from entering the country (which they were held accountable for) than in assisting them in trivial personal matters such as altering their names. The inspectors used the passenger lists given to them by the steamship companies to process each foreigner. These were the sole immigration records for entering the country and were prepared not by the U.S. Bureau of Immigration but by steamship companies such as the Cunard Line, the White Star Line, the North German Lloyd Line, the Hamburg-Amerika Line, the Italian Steam Navigation Company, the Red Star Line, the Holland America Line, and the Austro-American Line.[25][26] The Americanization of many immigrant families' surnames was for the most part adopted by the family after the immigration process, or by the second or third generation of the family after some assimilation into American culture. However, many last names were altered slightly due to the disparity between English and other languages in the pronunciation of certain letters of the alphabet." My great grandfather entered as Francisco J. Jorge but within a few years of living in California, he changed his surname to George. His little way of assimiling into the American cultural landscape.
Debbie Wolgemuth Researching Azoreans: Jorge (Flores), Freitas (Flores), Enos (San Miguel), Silveira Matos (Faial), Rodrigues (unknown) Immigrated to: Merced, CA From: [email protected] Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 22:05:08 -0800 Subject: Re: [AZORES-Genealogy] Ellis Island records To: [email protected] Tomas, Are you 100% sure he did enter through Ellis? Ship captains interpreted instructions differently. Perhaps the ship your grandfather and his buddy was on did leave Faial. They were together on that ship. It docks in New York and the captain has only those exit the ship whose final destination was New York or nearby. If your grandfather was interested in New Bedford or Boston, the captain may have told those people to stay on the ship, as they would be counted in the final destination port. I think I got that information from John P. Colletta's "They Came in Ships" book. See if your local library has a copy. Cheri Mello Listowner, Azores-Gen Researching: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, Ribeira das Tainhas, Achada -- To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." -- To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership."
