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46 DttP 7 (2018)
GovDocs to the Rescue: Debunking an Immigration Myth

handle is hein.journals/dttp46 and id is 9 raw text is: FEATURE GovDocs to the Rescue! Debunking an Immigration Myth Rosemary Meszaros and Katherine Pennavaria One question that routinely comes up in genealogy research: why is the family's surname different from its (presumed) original form? Most people have heard one explanation: those names were changed at Ellis Island, altered either maliciously or ignorantly by port officials when the immigrant passed through. The charge against immigration officials, however, is provably false: no names were written down at Ellis Island, and thus no names were changed there. The names ofarriving passengers were already written down on manifests required by the federal government, lists which crossed the ocean with the passengers. Records kept by the government demonstrate conclusively that immigrants left Ellis Island with the same surnames they had arrived with. The idea that names were changed at the point ofentry is a myth, an urban legend promoted by a popular film. Changes were made later, by the immigrants themselves, usually during the naturalization process. For the great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie (deliberate, contrived, and dishonest), but the myth: persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. -John F. Kennedy (Yale commencement Speech, June 11, 1962) M ost Americans are familiar with the idea that immigrants to the United States during the Ellis Island years (1892- 1954) had their surnames altered by the processing officials, either deliberately or through ignorance of the correct spelling. A search of the internet on the phrase name was changed at Ellis Island yields more than 300,000 hits; variations on the phrase yield even more. Here is a sampling of recent statements in an online forum asking people whether they believe that such a thing happened:1 My family name was probably shortened from some- thing Eastern European to something German, cer- tainly at Ellis Island. My great-grandfather came through and the name was shortened and changed by the worker. Some of my relatives' surnames were recorded incor- rectly on arrival. My great-grandfather and his two brothers came over together from Lithuania and left Ellis Island with three different last names. Our Italian surname was changed at Ellis Island when my great-grandparents came over. If one is to believe these earnest posters, the surnames of immigrants to the United States were routinely treated in a shoddy, unprofessional manner by the government representa- tives at American ports. They are wrong. No one's family name was changed, altered, shortened, butchered, or written down wrong at Ellis Island or any American port. That idea is an urban legend. Many names did get changed as immigrants settled into their new American lives, but those changes were made sev- eral years after arrival and were done by choice of someone in the family. The belief persists, however, that the changes were done at the entry point and that the immigrants were unwill- ing participants in the modifications. Sophisticated family history researchers have long rolled their collective eyes at the Ellis Island name change idea. In genealogy blogs and online DttP: Documents to the People Spring 2018 7

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