Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Genealogists

Why Immigrants Change their Names?

There were a variety of reasons, almost as many as there are names. Often, they wanted to be Americanized. A man named Ferraro, which means blacksmith in Italian, might translate his name and go by Smith, in order to "fit in" to an American community. That would be "on purpose"

An illiterate man would get a job, and tell his employer his surname was Alessi (pronounced "uh-LAY-see". The boss hears "Uh, Lacey". The man's name on the payroll and his paycheck then is listed as Lacey, and Lacey it becomes.

Young Biagio La Duca lives in a neighborhood where his contemporaries can't pronounce Biagio, so they arbitrarily call him Billy, because that starts with a "B" as well. On his first day at school, the boy tells his teacher his name is Billy", and she says "We go by proper names here," and records his name as William La Duca. Biagio becomes William.

Loreto Giglia (pronounced JEE-lya) gives his petition for naturalization to a judge who reads the suname and pronounces it GIG-lee-uh. Loreto insists, "No, it's JEE-lya, JEE-lya". The judge says "OK, in America we spell that G-E-L-I-A," and the surname of the man and his children becomes Gelia, (which, in Italy would be pronounced "GAY-lya"!!)

Contrary to popular opinion, names normally did NOT get changed at Ellis Island. They were changed by the person's American teachers, employers, neighbors, etc., or by the person himself when he felt it was to his benefit.

Genealogists.com