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<blockquote data-quote="aramis erak" data-source="post: 9050232" data-attributes="member: 6779310">My great-grandfather's surname was changed by the staff at Ellis Island, or so my grandfather said. The initial letter was dropped to render the written more pronouncable. (Further, I've seen photos from Poland with distant relatives using the dropped letter, so I know it was in use to be dropped..) Likewise, the ledgers have most of the names written in the same few hands, only the signatures being third party, at least on the&nbsp; pre WW-II rolls I used doing my own genealogical research, while working for NARA...There are enough interviewed in the 70's and 80's persons who came through before 1935 who claimed their names were changed.&nbsp; Documentaries about Ellis Island. Documentaries about pandemics. Documentaries on immigrant experiences. Also fun: The US didn't standardize spelling until Daniel Webster... and in the journals of Lewis &amp; Clark, facsimile editions will show that the didn't consistently spell each other's names the same way all the time.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="aramis erak, post: 9050232, member: 6779310"] My great-grandfather's surname was changed by the staff at Ellis Island, or so my grandfather said. The initial letter was dropped to render the written more pronouncable. (Further, I've seen photos from Poland with distant relatives using the dropped letter, so I know it was in use to be dropped..) Likewise, the ledgers have most of the names written in the same few hands, only the signatures being third party, at least on the pre WW-II rolls I used doing my own genealogical research, while working for NARA... There are enough interviewed in the 70's and 80's persons who came through before 1935 who claimed their names were changed. Documentaries about Ellis Island. Documentaries about pandemics. Documentaries on immigrant experiences. Also fun: The US didn't standardize spelling until Daniel Webster... and in the journals of Lewis & Clark, facsimile editions will show that the didn't consistently spell each other's names the same way all the time. [/QUOTE]

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