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ellis island

When Herschel Became Harry: How to Find your Ancestors’ Original Names

By Moriah Amit, Senior
Reference Services Librarian, Genealogy Coordinator

Although the notion that our immigrant ancestors’ names were changed by clerks at Ellis Island has been debunked time and again by noted scholars in Jewish genealogy (see References below), this myth remains pervasive in the stories that American Jews tell about their family history. The truth, that most of our immigrant ancestors chose…

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