Historically, how does one go about changing names?

[reed303]

Have you checked Ellis Island records ? Do you know approx immigration date ?

If not, try here. https://stevemorse.org/ellis2/elliswhite.html

At least 50 entries for a Manuel Cordeiro from the Azores from 1800s to 1952 !!!

Sometimes you can find correct person by seeing who traveled with them.

Good Luck........

[pclem]

My grandfather and great grandfather unofficially changed their surname in the 1940s. My grandfather was in his early 20s and born in the US, and his father and mother weren't citizens. They were Italians and there was talk of interning and deporting Italians (along with Japanese) as enemy aliens, so they changed both their first and last names to American sounding names to avoid detection (they had already done so with their first names, going by the English equivalent, just to fit in and be pronounced more easily), and unlike people of German heritage who had mostly been here for 50, 100, 200+ years, Italians were more likely to be assumed to be recent arrivals and to be scrutinized.

Many Italians did this, and I think some people don't even know about the Italian heritage behind their names (especially if it's on the maternal side and they never asked their mother or grandmother about it etc). I am distantly related to Rocky Marciano, who changed his surname from Marchegiano, and I have relatives on that side of the family who changed their name to Marsh a couple generations back, while others still go by Marchegiano.

They didn't file anything, they just 'assumed' the new name, which was similar to the old. Their birth and death certificates have different first and last names. Somehow they got social security, etc. without making any official filings (guess they just told employers to put new name on their checks/payroll tax forms but file under same #). My grandfather had Italian first Italian last on birth certificate, American first Italian last on marriage certificate, and American first American last on death certificate.

Everyone who came after them went by the new last name. I, my father, and others in the family have toyed with the idea of changing it back (or just re-recognizing our 'real' surname) but no one has yet done so.