MANIFEST

Between 1892 and 1954 around 12 million people immigrated to the US via the immigration station at Ellis Island, New York. And any scan of online genealogy groups or sites or almost any conversation of the topic is likely to land you with something like: “The guy at immigration thought our family name was too ethnic” or “they misspelled the name upon arrival in New York.” But, as stated in Genealogy: A Practical Guide for Librarians, “One of the more pervasive myths about family history in America is that many immigrants’ names were changed at Ellis Island.”

Folks seem to agree that this fiction took hold with the 1974 film The Godfather Part II, in which Vito Andolini, a little boy from Corleone, Sicily, arrives in New York only to have his name altered to Vito Corleone when the immigration official mistakes the boy’s hometown for his last name. However, as it turns out, not only did things like this not occur but they were not even possible.

As spelled out in GovDocs to the Rescue! Debunking an Immigration Myth, no names were ever written down at Ellis Island. Ships all had manifests and those were populated at the time of ticket purchase, on the embarkation end, verified before boarding, typically having someone standing checking off names at the on-ramp, and then again at the immigration line-up. And not only were companies keen to make sure everyone aboard paid for their voyage but nations were also keen to know who was coming and going. Even two hundred years ago, everyone on all sides were required to ensure that ship manifests (including name, age, sex, occupation, and nationality) corresponded exactly with who got on and who got off passenger ships, just the same as we do today.

The 1819 Steerage Act, for example, among other things, required ship captains to sign ship manifests, verifying the accuracy of them and ensuring only those intended to disembark were doing so. It will also not surprise you to hear that such laws meant discrepancies resulted in non-trivial penalties for shipping companies, including even forfeitures of cargo or vessels, and a captain needing to explain himself to a federal official. In 1893, around the opening of Ellis Island, manifest requirements only became more detailed and strict. Ticket sellers were then made to collect contact information for every passenger as well as health details and even information about an individual’s political leanings. (Of course, all of the above was used in questioning by the immigration official to help confirm a passenger's identity once they arrived.) Interestingly too, ship manifests had blank rows crossed out by shipping clerks so they could not be added to. And even discovered stowaways were required to be returned to the point of embarkation at the expense of the shipping company and not permitted to stay. You see, there was literally no room to add or change names, even if one wanted to.

So we know the only things added to ship manifests were tick marks, when a person got on and off, lines to cross out the names of people who did not board, and notations for if a passenger had died during the crossing. Neither ship captains or crew added or removed names from manifests nor did anyone on the arrival end. And there are photos and films from the time confirming this, with immigration officials working with completed lists, not filling them in.

Obviously we can think of all kinds of reasons someone may wish to alter their own name, but pretending a fellow at the immigration counter did so carelessly, in ignorance, or in malice and unbeknownst to someone arriving doesn’t actually make any sense. And we all know anyone can change their name for any reason at any time, so no one would ever have been stuck with something written by accident on a piece of paper... So how does this myth persist as it does?