Smerel,
This is why I posted this in a thread about “Unpopular opinions” It’s a MYTH people’s name changed at Ellis Island. Do you or “people you know” have any proof? I highly doubt it.
Some Jews did in fact change their name once in America but NOT at Ellis Island.
“Was your name changed at Ellis Island? The simple answer is no. It never happened.
Today there are millions of descendants of immigrants to the U.S. who firmly believe this myth and, despite continued efforts of prominent genealogists and immigration experts, it seems impossible to stamp it out.
This could not have happened for the following reasons:
1. The only thing the clerk did was check off the names on the passenger manifest that was compiled before the ship sailed from Europe (as I mentioned). The Ellis Island clerk never asked the immigrant his or her name.
2. In any case, some 30% of the immigration clerks were themselves multi-lingual immigrants and some 60 languages were spoken, with translators available at all times (as I mentioned 9 Yiddish speaking translators, there was ALWAYS Yiddish speakers available to translate).
3. There was no name change form or any process for an immigration clerk to change a person’s name. It was not a court of law.
“According to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service senior historian Marian L. Smith:
The report that the clerk “wrote down” the immigrants surname is suspect. During immigration inspection at Ellis Island, the immigrant confronted an inspector who had a passenger list already created abroad. That inspector operated under rules and regulations ordering that he was not to change the identifying information found for any immigrant UNLESS requested by the immigrant, and UNLESS inspection demonstrated the original information was in error.”