3 ms·

C'mon, you can't just drop that in with no corroborating data. I could, with similar authority, state that it being a myth is a myth.

roywiggins 4y ago
"Someone wanting to book passage to America, Canada, Australia, South America, etc., would have had no difficulty locating an agent. Agents quoted ticket prices to the would-be traveler, accepted payment, and then recorded each traveler’s name and other identifying information (the specific information collected varied over the years). The information taken down by the agents was sent to the home office, where it was transferred by shipping company clerks onto large blank sheets provided by the US government. Those sheets became the passenger lists which later were used by American port officials." https://journals.ala.org/index.php/dttp/article/view/6655/8939 https://journals.ala.org/index.php/dttp/article/view/6655/89...
bazoom42 4y ago
Don’t take it on my authority. Read any historical source about what happened at Ellis Island, eg. https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/ellis-island-facts-and-myths https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/ellis-island-facts-and-... Even wikipedia has it under the “Name-change myth” section: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_Island https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_Island > Records show that immigration officials often actually corrected mistakes in immigrants' names, since inspectors knew three languages on average and each worker was usually assigned to process immigrants who spoke the same languages. > Many immigrant families Americanized their surnames afterward, either immediately following the immigration process or gradually after assimilating into American culture. Because the average family changed their surname five years after immigration, the Naturalization Act of 1906 required documentation of name changes.
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 4y ago
  See, that's what you should have posted originally.
  - bazoom42 4y ago
    I was just following the “what can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence”-principle. There is just no evidence that Ellis Island officials made up names, and this is a very througly studied area of US history.

roywiggins 4y ago

"Someone wanting to book passage to America, Canada, Australia, South America, etc., would have had no difficulty locating an agent. Agents quoted ticket prices to the would-be traveler, accepted payment, and then recorded each traveler’s name and other identifying information (the specific information collected varied over the years). The information taken down by the agents was sent to the home office, where it was transferred by shipping company clerks onto large blank sheets provided by the US government. Those sheets became the passenger lists which later were used by American port officials." https://journals.ala.org/index.php/dttp/article/view/6655/8939 https://journals.ala.org/index.php/dttp/article/view/6655/89...

bazoom42 4y ago

Don’t take it on my authority. Read any historical source about what happened at Ellis Island, eg. https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/ellis-island-facts-and-myths https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/ellis-island-facts-and-... Even wikipedia has it under the “Name-change myth” section: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_Island https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_Island > Records show that immigration officials often actually corrected mistakes in immigrants' names, since inspectors knew three languages on average and each worker was usually assigned to process immigrants who spoke the same languages. > Many immigrant families Americanized their surnames afterward, either immediately following the immigration process or gradually after assimilating into American culture. Because the average family changed their surname five years after immigration, the Naturalization Act of 1906 required documentation of name changes.

kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 4y ago
See, that's what you should have posted originally.
- bazoom42 4y ago
  I was just following the “what can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence”-principle. There is just no evidence that Ellis Island officials made up names, and this is a very througly studied area of US history.