One of my grandmother's uncles and his family were on the manifest as the name of his brother-in-law - presumably because HE had paid for the ticket which was picked up in Liverpool before they left that port for New York (and then Benton Harbor, MI). He had his Russian passport (in Cyrillic) and baptism documents for the children, and all was correct with respect to first names and ages - just not the SURNAME!. They NEVER changed their name to the one on the manifest. But, since they didn't understand English and had a ticket in hand with a name on it, and the manifest was created by the ticket agent or shipping agent with that name, how could they question what was there?
Stories abound - and most of them fiction. But does make it difficult to find them if there are other stories like this one! Helen Gillespie On Sun, Nov 24, 2019 at 1:52 PM Ward Walker <[email protected]> wrote: > First, regarding Legacy, I agree with making the birth name the primary > name, unless the birth document had a clearly obvious error on it. > > Regarding Ellis Island, I am puzzled by one thing. Before modern times, I > have never seen any evidence of a document being given to the immigrant or > a > document being registered with the government. I'm thinking especially of > the 1895-1905 time frame. What constituted a legal name? Is it possible > that > some inspectors strongly suggested (verbally or on a scrap of paper) to > the > immigrant that they should use an Americanized name, but that it was then > up > to the immigrant to institute that later upon settling into their > community? > Initially, that might be done with such things the annual city > directories, > the school system, marriage records, censuses, and eventually tax forms > and > naturalization. In other words, by what specific mechanism could the > immigration inspector force a name change on an immigrant at Ellis Island? > > My own anecdotes: > - My relatives' Italian surnames and given names varied with each year > of > the city directory, sometimes Anglicized and sometimes not. > - In one family, the surname of the children was changed by the > teachers, > and that stuck, but their father stubbornly refused to change his own name. > > Ward > > -----Original Message----- > From: Christopher Seward Sr. > Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2019 8:49 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Surname Changed When Immigrated > > The first one you listed is the one that mentions that the Inspectors > would make changes of what they perceived to be errors. You've made my > point. > The others you listed are articles by people who have made the same > assumptions you made. I have interviewed people who came through Ellis > Island who have told me these stories. One Carlo Pietropinto, who had > his name changed by one of the inspectors whose assumed that his named > was really Carlos Pietro Pinto. His family in Italy is known as > Pietropinto. His family here in the US is known as Pinto. Clearly > (because he told me) not his choice. > > I can also point to a family (I interviewed them personally) who came > through EI. There names where Salvatore, Nicola, Antonetta, > Pasqualina. The inspectors tried to encourage them to change there > names to Samuel, Ncholas, Anna, and Pauline. They refused. > > These this did indeed go on. I'm not sure why so many people suspend > belief in facts and refuse to believe that people at Ellis Island could > possibly make mistakes. It is very important in the Genealogy world > that we not rule out such possibilities, and understand that the > surnames they are looking for could have been changed at Ellis Island. > Encourage them to look at that possibility and think maybe they should > look for different surnames than the ones they are hitting roadblocks on. > > You can point to all the blogs you want, but I will take it from those > who were there, and saw this first hand, and told me with their own > tongues. > > I mean no disrespect. I just think that trying to deny that this > actually happened can discourage people from doing a more creative > search to find ancestors that they might not otherwise find. > > Christopher > > On 11/23/2019 3:16 PM, Laura Johnson wrote: > > the so called ledgers were the ships manifests - those were done at the > > port of departure. > > > > Here are a few good articles to let you know what really happened > > > > > https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/ask-smithsonian-did-ellis-island-officials-really-change-names-immigrants-180961544/ > > > > https://www.genealogy.com/articles/research/88_donna.html > > > > https://www.nypl.org/blog/2013/07/02/name-changes-ellis-island > > > > https://www.thevintagenews.com/2019/04/29/ellis-island-names/ > > > > > > On 11/23/2019 3:06 PM, Christopher Seward Sr. wrote: > >> > >> Marie, > >> > >> I would disagree with that first statement. In my years of doing > >> research, I have heard stories where the workers at Ellis Island > entered > >> names into the ledgers incorrectly. If they were unable to discern the > >> name from the ships manifest, they would of write down the names as > THEY > >> understood the passengers. I have examples in my own family where a > >> Braun from Prussia was listed as Brown because the person at intake > >> determined that the immigrant should "Americanize" their name. > >> > >> As for the second part of your statement...I agree. I do believe that > >> the AKA field i the best place to notate that. > >> > >> Ciao, > >> Christopher > >> > >> On 11/23/2019 2:56 PM, mvmcgrs--- via LegacyUserGroup wrote: > >>> > >>> > >>> First, the name was not changed at Ellis Island. The manifests were > made > >>> in the country that they departed from. They probably made the change > >>> themselves to make the name easier to pronounce and spell. They may > have > >>> done it legally, [through the courts] but more likely they just > started > >>> to use the new spelling. > >>> > >>> I'm using Legacy 8 and there is an AKA (4th logo from the right) it > >>> looks like a group of people. You can add the name that they used in > >>> Italy or the one used in the US, your choice. You can cite the source > >>> (census, birth record, marriage record, etc) for each individual time > >>> you find the name. Then use the other name in database. > >>> > >>> Marie > >>> > >>> Marie Varrelman Melchiori, Certified Genealogist Emeritus > >>> ______________________________ ______________________________ __ > >>> CG or Certified Genealogist is a service mark of the Board for > >>> Certification of Genealogists, used under license by Board-certified > >>> genealogists after periodic competency evaluation, and the board name > is > >>> registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. > >>> In a message dated 11/23/2019 2:53:41 PM Eastern Standard Time, > >>> [email protected] writes: > >>> > >>> My great grandfather had the surname Vallevegni in Italy. > >>> > >>> When the family immigrated to the U.S. it changed to Vallevieni > >>> which > >>> they used from then on (probably changed at Ellis Island). > >>> > >>> How should I enter 2 surnames in Legayc? > >>> > >>> -- Cathy Vallevieni > >>> 714 389-6374 Home > >>> 714 227-4948 Cell > > > -- > > LegacyUserGroup mailing list > [email protected] > To manage your subscription and unsubscribe > http://legacyusers.com/mailman/listinfo/legacyusergroup_legacyusers.com > Archives at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >
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