Cheri, You make valid points. None of these apply to my grandfather. He was born in the U. S. in the 1870s and was fluent in both English and Portuguese.
Gayle On Aug 11, 2012, at 12:04 PM, Cheri Mello <[email protected]> wrote: > Some of the anglicization of names is being a product of the time period. > Literacy (even in America) was not then (1900, say) what it is today. So > Machado sounded close enough to Marshall. Couple that with going through WWI > and WWII in America and America being on the winning side and everyone wants > to be American. I can't quite recall from my college studies, but I think it > was more like the 1960s or maybe 1970s when there was more of a push towards > multiculturalism. And literacy was higher by then. > > How many legally changed their name though? I've met other genealogists and > mostly it's just a corruption or anglicization from the past because of > literacy. A couple had the name changed in the naturalization papers, and > the most common reason was to make it easier in living here. (This was a > name from Poland? Lithuania?) One person had the story that his family > changed their name to their in-laws names on purpose because the first > syllable was prounced "dumb" in English. I didn't see the paperwork on that, > so I guess that's their family story. > 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."
