Ellis Island: Did They or Didn't They?

Ellis Island Museum

I've always heard family historians say that their ancestors' names were changed by the clerks at Ellis Island. And I've heard numerous talks by professional genealogists disputing this fact. They say that name changes did not occur at Ellis Island.  In my own probate talks I've demonstrated how many people did change their names - in the court system.

Recently I was browsing through my mother's collection of genealogy books. I happened to stumble upon Ancestry's Guide to Research: Case Studies in American Genealogy (Ancestry, 1985) by Johni Cerny & Arlene Eakle. I decided to pull it out and give it a read.

Imagine my surprise to find this nugget (p. 14) about Ellis Island:

"Cerny, a Slovakian surname that is spelled Cierny, denotes the color black. Jan Cierny (pronounced chair-nee) had his name changed when he arrived in the United States to John Cerny (pronounced sir-nee) by Ellis Island processing clerks. His wife had her name changed to Theresa Zahorec."

Both Johni Cerny and Arlene Eakle are respected professional genealogists. Are they right or is this a mistake?

So I ask - What is the definitive answer about name changing at Ellis Island? Did name changes occur or not?


Photo Credit: photo by Jeff Pearce and used under the creative commons license.