Blame It On Brooklyn: 2017 Immigrant name changes

Why Sam Ting and Sean Ferguson Never Were: The Ellis Island Myth

Steven B. Zwickel, 2016

“…the idea that an entire family’s name was changed by one clerk—especially one at Ellis Island—is seldom supported by historical research and analysis.

“American name change stories tend to be apocryphal, that is, they developed later to explain events shrouded in the mist of time. Given the facts of US immigration procedures at Ellis Island, the … story becomes suspect. In the story, the immigrant arrives at Ellis Island and a record is then created by someone who cannot communicate with the immigrant, and so assigns the immigrant a descriptive name. {See the Sam Ting and Sean Ferguson jokes in the endnotes}

“In fact, passenger lists were not created at Ellis Island. They were created abroad, beginning close to the immigrant’s home, when the immigrant purchased his ticket. It is unlikely that anyone at the local steamship office was unable to communicate with this man. His name was most likely recorded with a high degree of accuracy at that time.

“It is true that immigrant names were mangled in the process. The first ticket clerk may have misspelled the name (assuming there was a “correct spelling”—a big assumption). If the immigrant made several connections in his journey, several records might be created at each juncture. Every transcription of his information afforded an opportunity to misspell or alter his name. Thus the more direct the immigrant’s route to his destination, the less likely his name changed in any way.

“The report that the clerk “wrote down” the immigrants surname is suspect. During immigration inspection at Ellis Island, the immigrant confronted an inspector who had a passenger list already created abroad. That inspector operated under rules and regulations ordering that he was not to change the identifying information found for any immigrant UNLESS requested by the immigrant, and unless inspection demonstrated the original information was in error.

“Furthermore, it is nearly impossible that no one could communicate with the immigrant. One third of all immigrant inspectors at Ellis Island early this century were themselves foreign-born, and all immigrant inspectors spoke any of three languages. They were assigned to inspect immigrant groups based on the languages they spoke. If the inspector could not communicate, Ellis Island employed an army of interpreters full time, and would call in temporary interpreters under contract to translate for immigrants speaking the most obscure tongues.

“Despite these facts, the Ellis-Island-name-change-story (or Castle Garden, or earlier versions of the same story) is as American as apple pie (and probably as common in Canada).

From “American Names” by Marian L. Smith, INS Historian <http://www.iabsi.com/gen/public/imm_names.htm#changing_names>

Changing Names

If most immigrants had official documents with their real names when they came to the US, when and how did they change their names? The short answer is that before 1906, the only legal way to change one’s name was to get a court order making the change. After 1906, most people changed their names when they became naturalized citizens. The long answer can be found at United States Naturalization and Citizenship https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/United_States_Naturalization_and_Citizenship#Naturalization_From_1790-1906.5B2.5D Of course, anyone could use an alias or nickname in daily life, but “When an immigrant’s new name no longer matched that shown on their official immigration record (ship passenger list), he or she might face difficulties voting, in legal proceedings, or naturalization”. <https://www.uscis.gov/history-and-genealogy>
After 1906, most people changed their names officially when they became naturalized citizens. When the INS was created in 1906, naturalization records were created to process naturalizations and keep track of immigrants in the United States. Copies of these documents are in the possession of the former INS, now United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). <www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis>

Searching court records

Searching for official court records of name changes can be daunting. The changes were made in both federal and individual state courts. If you know where your ancestor lived in the US, you can try finding the name change records in state archives.

Try searching online using [State Name] + name change records. This is what I found searching for records in New York State:

New York State Records of Name Changes

New York State Archives Record Series Cited ›http://www.archives.nysed.gov/research/res_topics_gen_naturalization_namehttp://www.archives.nysed.gov/research/res_topics_gen_naturalization_name

“Many immigrants to New York legally changed their names in order to simplify the spelling, or to adopt an American -sounding name. Prior to 1875 a change in a personal name could be accomplished through a special act of the Legislature. In addition, an 1847 statute authorized a court proceeding for the same purpose. Any person over age 21 could petition a county-level court to issue an order changing his or her name.

“Starting in 1861 and continuing through 1912, lists of names changed by the courts (stating the old and new names, date of change, and court ordering the change) were published in the annual session laws of the Legislature. The court order changing a personal name is recorded in the county clerk's office in the county where the person resides. The name changes published in the session laws are indexed in each volume.

“If you know the year in which a person changed his or her name, you can find name changes by the Legislature and the courts listed in:
General Index to the Laws of the State of New York, 1777-1901 (Albany: 1902), vol. 2, pp. 1309-87

HathiTrust Digital Library http://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.hl3jkj

or

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.35112203969532

Google Books https://books.google.com/books?id=cLIwAQAAMAAJ&dq

and in a supplement for period 1902- 1907 (Albany: 1908), pp. 469-567.General index to the laws of the state of New York, 1902-1907, ...New York (State) pp. 469-567.
HathiTrust Digital Library http://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.hl3jkj orhttps://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?view=image;size=100;id=hvd.hl3jkj;page=root;seq=475;num=469 Google Books https://books.google.com/books?id=tmMSAAAAYAAJ&pg

Example page from New York State Archives

New Jersey Legal Name Changes, 1847-1947

https://wwwnet1.state.nj.us/DOS/Admin/ArchivesDBPortal/NameChanges.aspx

Naturalization records

You may be able to determine if a name was changed from naturalization records.

Because immigrants were allowed to naturalize in any court, they often selected the most convenient court. If they lived in New Jersey but worked in New York City, check the courts of New York City for the naturalization records. If an immigrant lived on the border of a county, they may have naturalized in the adjacent county because the courthouse may have been closer.

These online resources include naturalization indexes as well as digital images of naturalization records.

« Online Searchable Naturalization Indexes and Records—Free links to naturalization indexes and records arranged by state. Gives statewide indexes and records first, then gives the countywide indexes and records. Updated regularly and a great place to begin searching for naturalization records on the Internet. <www.germanroots.com/naturalization.html>
« FamilySearch Historical Records—Free website containing indexes and images of naturalization records. New databases are added monthly. Search by state. <www.familysearch.org/search/collection>
« Fold3.com—Paid subscription, but free access is available at the National Archives, at National Archives regional branches, and at Family History Centers that have Internet access. Contains digital images of some of the National Archives collections. Naturalization databases on fold3.com are under the “browse all” link. Under category, click Naturalizations 1700s - Mid 1900s. Use the “search within” box at the bottom of the screen to type in a name. An “advanced search” option that helps narrow down common names when more information is known about the ancestor.
« Ancestry.com—Paid subscription website but many public libraries will give you free access. Most of Ancestry’s naturalization records are found under Immigration and Emigration.

New York, County Naturalization Records (Family Search Historical Records)

If you know in which county your ancestor lived and when he or she applied for naturalization, you can browse through images in this collection by visiting the familysearch.org browse page for New York, County Naturalization Records, 1791-1980 at <https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/New_York,_County_Naturalization_Records_(Family_Search_Historical_Records)>

To begin your search it is helpful to know the following:

« The full name of your ancestor
« The approximate immigration and naturalization dates
« The ancestor’s residence

If you do not know this information, check the 1900 census and then calculate the possible year of naturalization based on the date of immigration. The 1920 census may tell you the exact year of immigration or naturalization. If your ancestor naturalized before 1900, check the census records to see when he or she first appeared in the census. This will give you a 10 year window in which they may have immigrated.

Example page from New York County Naturalization Records

Jewish Family Names

The name “Zwickel” is probably not my family’s original name. Before the Jews of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were “emancipated” in the mid-1800s, Jews were known only by their Hebrew names and as the son or daughter of a Jewish man. {Shmuel’s father was named Yitzhak, so he would be called Shmuel ben Yitzhak.} After emancipation, the Jews were required to take last names.

“Jews in most of Europe did not use surnames until forced to take them by the governments in power from about the time of Napoleon. Before Napoleon, Jews used patronymics (Israel ben Chaim, for example, meaning Israel the son of Chaim). The Napoleonic reforms gave Jews more equal treatment by government but required that they take permanent surnames. The central and eastern European Empires saw the advantages of permanent Jewish surnames in terms of better tracking for taxes and military service. They adopted this requirement in the early 19^th century, with less attention to granting more equal treatment for the Jews.”

“Most states required that the selected surnames be in the language of the state, or at least that the names not be Biblical in some senses. The language of the Austrian Empire and of the Germanic states was German. The secular language of the Jews of central and Eastern Europe was Yiddish, a language with substantial roots in medieval German. The language of the Russian Empire was Russian, a Slavic language. Thus the surnames of central and eastern European Jews sound Germanic or Slavic because they are.”

“Sometimes there was indeed a meaning that might translate from a Hebrew term, but in some areas only a limited number of specified names were available for Jews to choose from.

From a submission to Gesher Galicia SIG by Peter Zavon

My own family’s story: Zwickel = Little Beet?
Legend has it that one of our ancestors, desperately trying to avoid serving in the Russian Tsar’s army, slipped across the border from the Russian Pale of Settlement into Poland. He is supposed to have been hidden in a wagonload of beets (or to have had a shock of dark red hair). In either case, when he emerged from his hiding place, someone called him a “Zwickel” a common local term for “beet” and the name stuck. There may be some truth to that: the Yiddish word for beet is tzvik צוויק and the Russian and Ukrainian word for beet is tzv’kl свёкла. The Yiddish word tzviker ערצוויק means pair of tweezers.

But there are other stories, too:

In German, a “zwickel” is a term used in sewing to describe a gusset, a dart, or a pinched fold of cloth. By extension, it also means a “crotch”.

Wolfgang Zwickel says: The name Zwickel derives from the place where the house stood. In Bavaria, a Zwickel is a street, which is divided in two parts like an Y—a fork in the road.

Michael Cwikiel wrote: the Polish word ćwik means “capon” (a castrated rooster) also used as a nickname for an imbecile. Ćwikl would be a small capon.

Ellyn Randy Zwickel said that in her family’s version Zwickel means “twig” in Yiddish and that it is short for a longer name. Possible, but the yiddishdictionaryonline.com translates twig as tsvaygl or צווײַגל.

Jonathan Leavitt wrote: “the Zwickel family of Brooklyn was reportedly descended from a Jewish family named RAUCH (German for smoke) or RAUSCH (German for a state of intoxication or inebriation), which lived in Galicia (the southwestern region of Poland), which was part of the Hapsburg (Austro-Hungarian) Empire prior to World War I.” [1] His grandfather supposedly purchased the papers of a dead man named Zwikel and assumed his identity to avoid being drafted into the Austrian Army. The exact same story came from the descendents of Wolf Zwicker (whose name was changed from Zwickel to Zwicker by clerical accident after he came to New York).

The Russian Czar conscripted Jews for 25 years of service, during which they were brutally treated and many were forced to convert to Christianity. But the Zwikels, living outside the Russian Pale of Settlement (a region where Jewish life was tightly controlled by Russia) did not have to worry about being drafted into the Czar’s army. The Zwikels were subject to Austrian laws, not Russian. They were eligible for service in the Austrian Army. Service in the Habsburg army was a trial, but the term was short and training often lackadaisical. In short, it doesn’t seem like evading the draft was worth the effort. One can find anecdotes about Jews avoiding army service by fleeing the country or by bribing officials (or by their parents failing to register their births!), but no credible source describes the strategy of a Jew buying a dead man’s papers. The Rauch/Rausch story is possible, but unlikely.

And I recently found a Yiddish-English dictionary that has a definition for viklen - וויקלען\VIK-len\ Verb \ Past Participle: Geviklt, meaning:

1. To wrap, swaddle.
2. To wind, spin (with the reflexive particle zikh [זיך]).
This word is the root of the word tseviklen (צעוויקלען) - to unroll, unfurl, deploy; as in the expression “Az men hot a kind in vikl, zol men shoyn avekleygn a tsvikl” Already when the child is in diapers, one should start keeping it in check (lit., one should apply a safeguard [to it]).

Conclusion

I have no idea where my family name came from.

Sam Ting and Sean Ferguson

A visitor to New York’s Chinatown was puzzled when he came across a building with the sign “Mendl Plotnik’s Laundry.” He walked into the shop and found that everyone working there was Chinese. So, he went up to the old Chinese gentleman behind the counter and asked, “How this place got a name like “Mendl Plotnik's Laundry?” The old man answered, “Ah...everybody ask me that. It name of owner.” Looking around, the visitor asked, “Is he here?” “It me," replies the old man, “I am Mendl Plotnik.” “Really? You're Chinese. How did you get a name like “Mendl Plotnik?” “Simple", said the old man. “Many, many years ago I came to this country. I stand in line at “Documentation Center of Immigration.” Man in front of me was Jewish man from Poland. Lady at counter look at him and say, ‘What your name?’” He say, “Mendl Plotnik.” Then she look at me and ask, “What your name?” I say, “Sam Ting.”

When Moishe emigrated to the US, he was told by his fellow shipmates that his Yiddish name would not work in America and he needs a new name for himself — one with an American sound. They suggest "Edward Montgomery."
When Moishe arrived at Ellis Island and he is summoned before the clerk, he is in a highly-nervous state and unable to recall his new name.
“Name”, asks the clerk and then, trying to be helpful: “nomen?”
Moishe is stuck, “Ah, ah — och, shoyn fargesn!” (he has “already forgotten”). The Ellis Island clerk promptly writes down the newcomer as “Sean Ferguson.”

[1] In the late 1700s, Poland was absorbed by Russia, Prussia, and Austria. In 1772, during the 1^st Partition of Poland, Austria seized all of Galicia. Galician Jews were compelled to adopt German sounding surnames on July 23, 1787, during the reign of Joseph II, (Empress Maria Theresa’s son) following the introduction, in 1781, of the first genuine reforms in Central Europe—Judenreformen und Toleranzpatent (Jew-reforms and Edicts of Tolerance).

Blame It On Brooklyn

Monday, January 16, 2017

2017 Immigrant name changes

Why Sam Ting and Sean Ferguson Never Were: The Ellis Island Myth

Read more about how family names were Not Changed at Ellis Island

Changing Names

Searching court records

New York State Records of Name Changes

New Jersey Legal Name Changes, 1847-1947

Naturalization records

New York, County Naturalization Records (Family Search Historical Records)

Jewish Family Names

My own family’s story: Zwickel = Little Beet?

Conclusion

Sam Ting and Sean Ferguson

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