These are mostly
just that, stories. The New York Public
Library did a great post called Why Your Family
Name Was Not Changed at Ellis Island (and One That Was) which goes into great detail about
the process at Ellis Island.
Essentially, documentation about the naming of emigrants was NOT created
at Ellis Island , it was create in the
embarkation port or on board ship. The
article also goes into great detail about “1” person whose name was changed.
That said, many
emigrants DID change their name shortly after arriving! My own paternal family arrived as Kujanpää (pronounced
Gui ump a) and within a year they were Acey (pronounced Ace ee) – maybe they
thought the new surname was easier??!?!
That falls into the number one question I would ask my great-great
grandfather – why did you change the name from Kujanpää to Acey – a not very
common, often misspelled and mispronounced surname?
Read more about
this very common myth:
- Dispelling the Myth of Ellis Island Name Changes (About.com)
- No, Family Names Were Not Changed at Ellis Island (EOGN)
- They Changed Our Name at Ellis Island (Genealogy.com)
Editor’s Note: Previous Upfront with NGS article on this
topic, Ellis Island Name Change Rumors Persist.
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I find that very interesting. We were always told that my husbands family name (arabic) was changed when in the 1890's they arrived from what was Syria (and is now Lebanon) and their American name would be ACEE pronounced the same as the writer of the above article (ACE-EE). Very interesting that we have the same name - and they came thru the same place - but from different lands with the same new name.
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