16 May 2014

Name Changed At Naturalization?

Contrary to popular belief, people did not "have their names changed" at Ellis Island. Immigration into Ellis Island required too much paperwork for that to happen and there were plenty of translators available when Ellis Island was in operation.

If your ancestor used a different name, it's more likely he chose it when he settled or when he naturalized. Some name changes were never officially recorded.

But the "name changes" at Ellis Island did not happen.

1 comment:

  1. My grandmother and her siblings Anglicized their names shortly after arriving from Italy as young children (1911). However, it wasn't till my grandmother became a citizen in the 1940s that she changed her name legally to the one she'd been using all that time.

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