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A Thursday Myth Challenge: Ellis Island
I got an email from a woman asking about possible connections to my family lines. She thought it likely that her family might have shared a surname with my relative, but that it had been changed at Ellis Island.
I got an email from a woman asking about possible connections to my family lines. She thought it likely that her family might have shared a surname with my relative, but that it had been changed at Ellis Island.
I replied to her message and told her that the Ellis Island name-change stories were largely myths. The inspectors at Ellis Island were not responsible for interpreting names, but used the names on the passenger manifests that were created at the point of embarkation.
Immigrants arriving in the United States were screened for disease, associations with organizations that were hostile to the U.S., and had their further plans for travel checked, mostly to make sure that the new arrivals would not become a drain on the system.
Many family names were changed - elsewhere. Some families Americanized their names, hoping the path to citizenship would be easier if their name was easier to pronounce. Some names were changed because no identification was required for passage. They just lied.
If your own family legend claims that your ancestors' names were changed at Ellis Island - which means they arrived between 1892 and 1924 - you might want to do a bit of digging on your own. It probably is a legend, but probably not accurate.
There are tremendous resources available to help track down your ancestors. My research has destroyed several persistent family legends. Facts are facts. Some of the stories I was told were just that, stories, attempts to somehow make our past seem more important.
Here's part of my story - the passenger manifest for a ship called The Virginian that arrived in New York on the 21st of July 1845 from Liverpool carrying my great-great grandfather William Simpson, his wife Jane, and their son William on their journey from Ulster to America.
Want to know more? Here's a great place to start. Your family tree may already be started for you: https://www.familysearch.org/en/
