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Jerry H
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Yes they did. But not for the reason given. They turned strange last names into American sounding names. |
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Child of God
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Sometimes it was a case of a spelling error. Many of the early immigrants couldn't even write their own name, and the person taking the information would spell it the way it sounded. Then there were cases an immigrant did intentionally change the spelling, or change the name all together. |
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rside40
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It also happened in my family |
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William Simmons
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Yes. They changed names like Eisenhauer to Eisenhower. |
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Gretl
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Yes, sometimes they were given the name of the town they came from. Just because you might look Irish doesn't mean you are Irish. |
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fuzzygrinch
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Absolutely...back in the day for sure. If your name was like Schidtgah...they could change it to just Schmidt or even Smith. I'm not sure if you could approve or deny that, though. |
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Chris B
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During what I will term the "Great Exodus" from other lands during that time period, many names were muddled and/or misspelled. Yours does not sound as though that were the case, however. A name such as Erickson is unlikely to be misspelled. Are you certain that someone in that group did not have the middle name of Allen or a female having the last name of Allen before marriage?
Many a Mediterranean and Northeastern European name, as well as others, were misspelled or could not be read clearly enough so that it could be transcribed properly. Given the language barriers of the time the communication between the two factors weighed heavily when it came to mistakes being made.
I don't really think anyone was "snowed" and you can always check the records at Ellis Island to be certain. Unfortunately you'll have to have all the necessary information in order to do so. The ethnicity of Allen, Allan and Alan, per http://genealogy.about.com/library/surnames/bl_surnames-e.htm, are Scottish and not Irish as your co-worker stated and Erickson is not listed although I know the name to be of Nordic derivation and may very well be Swedish. Any genealogy site will be helpful. Good Luck! |
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trocker
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i have read where names had been changed , but i don't think they do it anymore. |
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Sxeptomaniac
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Changes did happen, but it was often a shortening or change in spelling to the name. I've never heard of anything as drastic as the name change you are suggesting.
However, there is also a significant amount of Norse blood in most Irish, thanks to the Norse colonies of the Middle Ages, so appearance alone might not be enough to go on. |
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Dan
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It happened all the time to lots of immigrants. |
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split dog
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Yes, it happened in my family.
A "T" was replaced w/ an "L" .
Found out by accident when another relative visited the "Ellis Island" site.
The processors at the intake center ( not the brightest) often "anglisized" foreign names or just spelled them phonetically....son, sen ,sohn etc
Sure there were more than a few cruel jokes played by bored
agents to break up the day also.
The Ellis Island site mentiioned, is a good place to start unless your ancestors arrived elsewhere or before the facility opened.
If there is a name, port of departure & dates it can be narrowed down somewhat.
The searches are free , but anything more detailed will have a fee.
Might try Geneaology .com also.
Best regards |
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bmwr606
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yes, if the immigration officer could not understand or spell the name he "assigned" one |
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Chris V
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yes at one point in the 1930-40s it slightly changed immigrants names
(irsh more than anyone else) |
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JUSTME
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Many names were changed when people came into Ellis Island. Spellings were different than they originally were in many cases. |
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bj_osterhout
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Yes, Oosterhout turned into Osterhout, Osterhaus, Oster, Osterhous, etc. etc. etc. |
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biwagirl20a
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I family name was changes also. i am not going to post it becasue I dont want to let it out. But back in the days of Ellis Island a lot of names were changed. I dont know of any for te reason you stated but many were spelled differently or writen down wrong. What ever the Immigration agent put down was what your name was. |
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Half-pint
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my old teacher's name got changed from xohos to nohos. |
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Beer and TV Olympian
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Yes they did change names. Some because they wanted more American sounding names and some just to start a new life.
More can be found at:
www.ellisisland.org |
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David
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Mine came about from bad understanding between Arabic and English. My great-grandfather couldn't speak much English and the Immigration and Customs agent couldn't speak anything that wasn't English. |
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steddy voter
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Names changed all the time. Sometimes it was as you stated, sometimes it was miscommunication, sometimes immigrants wanted a new identity (for various reasons), and sometimes it happened because letters in some languages didn't equate to the English alphabet, sometimes changes came about through misread hand writing, and sometimes immigrants chose to anglicize their names. My maiden name was one of the casualties of the language & alphabet barrier - my great-grandparents spelled it VERY differently than what is recorded in U.S. records (and is the legal spelling today that my family uses).
EDIT: Just an FYI for anyone who has ancestors that had names mis-recorded at Ellis Island - if you contact them, they will notate the correct names on their records (alongside the mis-spelled version). www.ellisisland.org |
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•°o.O.nenna.O.o°•
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Yes, definitely! I know that many immigrants had their last names "Americanized" in order to blend in with society. They did not want to be discriminated against for jobs and such, so they changed their last names. I know for sure that my last name is Applebach, but before it was that, it was "Afflerbach," the German version of the last name. As for your last name, well, I really don't know, but I know for certain that many last names were Americanized. |
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Dani
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Yes,it happened all the time. The officials filling out the paperwork did not like certain names, especially long names they had to write over and over. Remember, they were dipping ink into an inkwell with a pen... so a name like "Wilmenhemeir" was shortened to " Wilkes" or
"Meirs" simply because the official did not want to write all those letters. It was just to make things easier and faster at Ellis Island. |
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apocalypso
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Yes they did change last names, but I don't ever remember hearing that they changed them because there were too many people with that last name. I think it was usually when the person taking names couldn't spell the families real name because it was too difficult. So they would shorten it to something that sounded similar that they could actually spell. I think there's an example of this in one of the Godfather movies when the young Robert Deneiro comes to America. |
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Nothingusefullearnedinschool
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I don't know about any particular cases (except for my own ancestors) but names were definitely changed. Usually by mistake; ignorant people nowadays can't seem to spell any name correctly, so most likely it was a truth back then as well. Many names were Anglicized, either by election of the immigrant or the officials they had to deal with. |
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Jim H
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stick with what is told you by the family. |
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Amanda Overmeyer-Janis of today!
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It could be possible, but I'd believe your family instead. If you're that anxious to find out, look it up on family tree. |
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♥jersey girl♥
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yes immigration did do that many years ago. Some causes were too many of the names (like you) or the names were easiar to pronunce. Im sure if you wanted you can check online to see your name before. If you go to ellis island you can see it becaus eit was a major immagration site back in the earlier nineteen hundreds |
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Armada_Returns
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I know many immigrants changed their own names because they: a. wanted them to sound more american or b. there were too many other people with the same last name. I'm not sure though, whether or not the American government actually changed immigrants names as they came over. |
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yourpastlifelover
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Yes, changing the spelling of last names was a very common thing because it made it easier for immigrants who had hard-to-spell-or say names to have their papers processed more quickly. Bear in mind, though, that some people's last names get changed through marriage or just through personal preference. Also, many people cannot accurately judge ethnic ancestry or are even mistaken about their own ethnic identities.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=377839&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source=&ct=5
http://www.chinadaily.net/en/doc/2003-12/29/content_294229.htm
Again, this often has to do with immigration or racial intermarriage. Genetics can be very odd, and changes in a family's last name of origin often do reflect that racial intermixing.
Also, many Native Americans changd their names to 'white' ones. Sometimes they were forced to do this; sometimes they were not. It all mostly had to do with how much and by exactly which means they were 'assimilated' into white society. |
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girl: Adre`ana or boy: Juan Jr.
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my Grandfather is of French desent his name was too hard to pronounce so my Great Great Grandpa had his last name changed a bit. |
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