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From: Bob Jeske <>
Subject: Re: [G-P-L] Bursting a[n Ellis Island changed my family'sname] Bubble
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2011 19:45:18 -0400 (EDT)
References: <1309066492.9845.YahooMailClassic@web110008.mail.gq1.yahoo.com><8CE01DF7F606690-1080-15A2C@webmail-d061.sysops.aol.com><93C0470A93B6D34EA34CCF3A19EB8B71A8C977B862@MBX01.ldschurch.org>
In-Reply-To: <93C0470A93B6D34EA34CCF3A19EB8B71A8C977B862@MBX01.ldschurch.org>



Thanks for that bit of info............I'll remember that next time I search.
Many thanks to ALL the volunteers who dedicate their time and efforts
Helping us.

Bob Jeske








-----Original Message-----
From: Baerbel Johnson <>
To: germany-passenger-lists <>
Sent: Mon, Jun 27, 2011 9:45 am
Subject: Re: [G-P-L] Bursting a[n Ellis Island changed my family's name]Bubble


I think the "change" is merely a phonetic variation of the name "Jeske". The
letters "I" and "J" are often used interchangeably before 1900. The concept of
"proper spelling" is a modern-day development that came in vogue with the first
comprehensive dictionaries in the second half of the 19th Century.

Baerbel
<They were finally found under the name of "Iske" not Jeske.................Jeske
and the spelling is very common in Bessarabia. There are also other variants of
the spelling. But I have never seen it spelled Iske.

This didn't happen on Ellis Island, but in Nova Scotia.

Was this done because of translation......or the recorder wrote what he thought
they said.
This was definitely not written by my grandparents, as they couldn't read or
write English.

Any comments? >

Thanks Robert L Jeske.











-----Original Message-----
From: juliasgenes <>
To: GERMANY-PASSENGER-LISTS <>
Sent: Sat, Jun 25, 2011 10:40 pm
Subject: [G-P-L] Bursting a[n Ellis Island changed my family's name] Bubble


From: New England Historic Genealogical Society's newsletter, "The
Weekly Genealogist", Vol. 14, No. 22, Whole #533, June 1, 2011. Used
with permission.


Research Recommendations: Bursting a Bubble

by Michael J. Leclerc


I
burst another bubble yesterday. In speaking with a television producer
about a segment on genealogy, I mentioned the biggest myth in American
history — that anyone ever had their name changed at Ellis Island.
Despite the numerous families with this tradition passed down, there is
not a single documented occurrence of this ever happening. She was quite
surprised to hear this.

I’m certain that a number of people
reading this are even now thinking “That may be true, but in the case of
MY family it really did happen!” I’m sorry to disappoint you, but such
is not the case. And this makes complete sense.
Think of your ancestor, most of them poor or working class. They have
left the only home they have ever known for better opportunities in
America. They did not make this decision lightly. In most cases they had
no desire to return. Indeed, many of them were quite terrified of being
forced back to their homeland. Imagine the fate of a Russian Jew trying
to escape the pogroms at the turn of the century, making it to the
shores of the new world only to be forced to return to Russia. If you
were that immigrant, would you do anything that might jeopardize your
ability to stay in America?

Have you ever taken a cruise? Try
getting off the ship using a different name than the one with which you
boarded. I don’t think you would make it past the security gate, let
alone off the ship and onto shore. You showed your papers when you got
on board, and showed the same papers when you disembarked.

The
tradition in many families is that they arrived and
nobody at Ellis Island spoke their language. This is hogwash. The staff
of Ellis Island spoke languages from around the world. They processed
up to 11,000 immigrants per day. Many of these staff were themselves
immigrants or the children of immigrants who spoke their parents’ native
tongue. Together with hundreds of interpreters hired to work with them,
communication was not an issue. (Well, no worse than communicating with
any other bureaucrat, I’m certain.)

Some immigrants changed
their name prior to arriving in the United States. A friend of mine’s
great-grandfather was a Russian Jew, probably escaping the pogroms at
the turn of the century. He did not come directly to America, but went
first to England for a time. Between the time left Russia and the time
he boarded the ship in England, bound for Ellis Island, he changed his
name from Moishe Cohen to William Smith. The point is, he got on the
ship as William Smith and left the ship as
William Smith. The name change did not occur during passage.

More
common is that the immigrants changed their name once they had arrived
in America. Many were trying to settle in and feel more “American.” Some
may have been trying to escape the ethnic prejudice rampant in America.
Others may just have tired of spelling their Eastern European names to
Americans.

Indeed, spelling is, I believe, the crux of the issue
for many. Remember that at this time of massive immigration, literacy
was not very prevalent. People were more concerned with putting food on
the table, clothes on their backs, and a roof over their heads, than
with how to properly spell their name or any other word. Standardized
spelling of names is a twentieth-century concept that came with greater
education of the public. This is why we find so many spelling variations
in names. It wasn’t that people didn’t know how to spell their name, it
was that there was no
“proper” way to spell a name, and for the most part they didn’t care.

After
a time, the family’s name would change from the original and that would
be that. It wasn’t a big issue. In my own family, the spelling of my
surname varies among the descendants of my great-great-grandfather.
Variations include Leclair, Le Clair, LeClair, Leclerc, LeClerc, and Le
Clerc. Which one is the “correct” spelling, and who am I to tell another
family member that their spelling is not the "correct" version?

Despite
all that has been written to dispel the myth (try Googling “myth of
name changed at Ellis Island”), it continues to be handed down in some
families. I feel bad for people who are more connected to their family
myths than learning the truth. And the truth is usually there to be
found if one examines the records closely.

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