Why did these immigrants change their names???

[elizabethvitale]

???? Makes it so hard and expensive to figure who is who.

[wldspirit]

Some names were hard to pronounce, hard to spell and most immigrants wanted to fit in with their newly adopted country....so they changed their names to sound more American.
wldspirit

[elizabethvitale]

oh, sounds logical. Thank you

[bonval]

One other interesting issue - some names were changed back in Italy - few people were able to read and write - we have been doing a lot of research in Italy itself because my husband's family all are still there - the records were written by an official (the rare literate person) - he would write the names usually phonetically because most did not know the proper spelling of their own names - and for those who used dialect, it was more of an issue. For example as they spoke their name in dialect, a vowel might be dropped or added and the word might sound more 'slurred'. That would then influence how the name was written.

[bonval]

Sorry - double post?

[elizabethvitale]

I noticed that on the different census how Dominick might sound like dominique. Thanks for the help understanding this.

[vintagegamer]

Watch The Godfather II and you will see how quickly names got changed inadvertently.. I think it's right at the beginning, when Vito Corleone gets off of the boat.

Jim

[elizabethvitale]

I figured some of it was a boat thing. I also figured it was more than choice for some because of my research. Some was probably easier. I would wonder what my grandfather was originally. Would be interesting to know as long as he didn't have dealings in a bad way with the mob. The mob might come after me because of relationship. Yikes.
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