No, your ancestor didn’t change their name at Ellis Island.

70 years after its closure, Ellis Island remains a symbol of hope and holds a special place in the hearts of many Americans whose families entered through its port.

Ellis Island was a gateway to opportunity, and welcomed millions of immigrants from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and languages. One common misconception that has persisted for decades is the idea that names were arbitrarily changed at Ellis Island, eroding immigrants' identities.

The myth that immigrants’ names were changed at Ellis Island is upheld in pop culture. In The Godfather, Vito Andolini’s name is changed by an immigration officer that erroneously identifies him as Vito Corleone. In Elemental, Bernie and Cinder are misunderstood as they enter through an Ellis Island-like port, and are issued fire-themed names before they enter Elemental City.

These two scenes vastly misconstrue the process of immigration that took place on Ellis Island and in every other port of entry into the U.S.

The purpose of Ellis Island

Ellis Island - and every other port of entry - operated as a gateway for immigration, not a place for assimilation. Its primary purpose was to examine individuals for health and security reasons, ensuring they met the basic requirements for entry into the country. They were concerned with tuberculosis and lice. They wanted to know who immigrants knew in the U.S. and whether they had family here. They wanted to know how much money they had and whether they were polygamists (yes, really). Immigration officers conducted medical examinations and screened applicants for possible criminal records; the focus was entirely on identifying potential risks to public health and security, not altering personal identities.

Understanding ship manifests

If you’ve ever researched your ancestor’s immigration, you’ve probably seen a ship manifest, or passenger list. These were the lists of all the names of immigrants on the ship that arrived at Ellis Island or another port of entry. These records are often a source of Ellis Island name-change lore, for one of two reasons:

• You found your ancestor on the passenger list and their name is spelled differently: proof it was changed when they entered the U.S.!

• You found your ancestor on the passenger list and their name is spelled the ‘American’ way: proof it was changed when they entered the U.S.!

See what I’m getting at there? Both scenarios can’t be true, and yet both scenarios are consistently touted as proof that people changed their names at Ellis Island. So what was really going on with passenger lists?

These lists were actually filled out at the port of departure, before your ancestor ever left to cross the Atlantic. So - if your ancestor’s name is spelled differently on the passenger list, congratulations! This might be a clue as to how to continue your genealogy research outside of the U.S. and research your ancestry in their country of origin.

It is unlikely that you will find your ancestor’s name spelled the “American” way on a passenger list. If you do, this might be because they were already preparing to Americanize and assimilate in the U.S., but more likely than not, it was just a translation error. Remember our ancestors had to travel far in order to even reach a port of departure like Bremen or Cherbourg. As they stated their names, spelling mistakes or translation errors could have occurred, meaning what was written on the passenger list was not entirely accurate. Remember these few points:

• These inaccuracies were not malicious attempts by immigration officers to assimilate immigrants, they were just mistakes

• Spelling errors were more common than you might think: oftentimes our ancestors were illiterate and weren’t even entirely sure how to spell their own names. Spelling was not standardized in record-keeping like it is today.

Immigration Officers at Ellis Island

Once the immigrant reached Ellis Island, U.S. immigration officers did not write their name down on anything. They were handed the passenger lists by the ship crew, and as the immigrant approached, they would state their name, while the immigration officer would cross reference it on the passenger list in order to identify them.

The only recording they would do on the passenger lists was indicate what they had done with the immigrant: whether they allowed them entry, whether they turned them back, or whether they held them for further questioning. You can see this for yourself on passenger lists - in the below example, it is clear that the immigration officer recorded in pencil and in a different handwriting than the person who had recorded names.

There were also skilled translators at Ellis Island able to translate nearly every language that passed through the port, from Finnish to Hebrew to Italian. And while there was still possibility of translation error in the questioning, these errors would not have been in regard to the immigrant’s name, since it was already written on the passenger list from when the immigrant boarded the ship.

Passenger lists were inconsequential records

One of the least understood aspects about passenger lists and records associated with Ellis Island is that they were inconsequential. Many people seem to believe that however their ancestor’s name was spelled on the list is how they entered the U.S., and indeed this myth was perpetuated by The Godfather (poor, misunderstood Vito!). In reality, these records were filed away and were never looked at again unless your ancestor naturalized after 1906, in which case they would provide the name they immigrated under (their birth name rather than whatever they went by in the U.S.), and the Bureau of Labor would check the passenger list to confirm that the applicant did indeed immigrate on the date and on the ship that they say they did. Even in that case, if the name was spelled slightly off, it didn’t matter to the Bureau of Labor. They were not concerned with spelling whatsoever.

But, regardless, it is important to understand that your ancestor never saw whatever was written on the passenger list. It wasn’t as if their name was spelled Karl instead of Carl and - “whoops - I guess I’m going by Karl now!” These records were completely inconsequential to immigrants’ lives in the U.S., but this mere fact is often the most misunderstood.

So, has this changed your perspective of your family’s immigration story?