Quote:
Originally Posted by PM_Mama00
Actually it was still happening in the 20th century when immigrants were come over. Officials at Ellis Island forced them to. It wasn't a matter of "Do you want to change it?" My family didn't have to change their names which surprises me, but my mother did change hers to the American version of her original name. A friend of mine, who's family also came from Italy, were forced to change their last name. The original was Romano... for some reason they thought that was too Italian so they changed it to something that still sounded Italian. That's how a lot of families had different last names from each other.
Obviously America (in general) is more accepting of different cultures moreso now than they were back then so yes a comment about Asians changing their names is ridiculous.
|
Quick History Lesson:
There were actually few cases at Ellis Island where new immigrants were forced to change their names. In most cases, many immigrants were unable to give the proper spelling of their names (due to lack of education, not stupidity). The officials at Ellis Island had to spell names phonetically or as close as they could to the original name. So, while some "Wallachinsky" families becames "Wallace" (as what happened to the ancestors of the author Irving Wallace), most name changes occured due to misunderstandings, not force.
Threaded Mode
