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From: "Nancy Coleman" <>
Subject: Re: [APG] Certificate of Arrival
Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2002 13:31:10 -0500
References: <20021203001342.39622.qmail@web13407.mail.yahoo.com> <005301c29a7b$ed7025c0$210110ac@DICK> <011c01c29a97$5ee79650$0000a398@Mic> <5.2.0.9.2.20021203074137.05428cb0@facstaff.wisc.edu>


Dear Rollie:

You are right about the 1906 date. Before that, there's not
much more than a signature that's interesting! At least for
NYC, the petitions are very skimpy indeed. :)

Using another recent case as a reference, the COA was dated
16 July 1937 and the gentleman made his declaration on 4
August 1937, so the COA was required PRIOR to one's filing
his/her intent. Which, makes sense I guess!

This guy wasted no time. His name on arrival was Hersz
Menasche and on his Petition he's assumed the name Herman
Menasche (aka Harry). Here's the full chronology:
Arrival: 28 June 1937
COA: 16 July 1937
D of I: 4 Aug 1937
Affidavit of Witnesses: 20 Jan 1943
Petition & Oath of Allegiance: 24 Feb 1943

The children listed went from Siegfried to Fred and from Lea
to Lilly. The wife went from Ester to Erna. What famous
person was this (Lilly)? Lillian Vernon! Of catalogue
fame. She used the name Vernon from where she lived (Mt.
Vernon, NY) for her catalogue business. But, she's married
and goes by yet another name altogether!

I've also run across a few Ellises or Ellisons who took that
name specifically because of Ellis Island. Another I just
worked on was a change from Zucker to Zuccaire (say Zucker
with a French accent; the family emigrated from Paris so I
guess they didn't like the hard American pronounciation of
their name!). Another was from Kalischer to Smith (go
figure!) which simplified things (further searching
backwards) for the client once that was realized :). Oh
what a tangled web we weave... :)

Anyway, the advantage to knowing this about the notations on
the ship manifest is that if you see one of these
certificate numbers (2-000000, NYC or in the case of Chicago
11-, Los Angeles I believe is 23-...), you then can narrow
down your search for a naturalization considerably! And,
since it is usually (but not always) accompanied by a date,
you can narrow down the time-frame as well and rule out
quite a lot of "possibles," particularly if you're dealing
with common names.

Kenneth Scott has a great book out on other name changes
that are on record at the County Clerks Office, Division of
Old Records (31 Chambers Street). It is "Petitions for Name
Changes in New York City 1848-1899." It is fully indexed
and some of the details include the reason given (to the
court) for the name change. Some are histerical! I can
open it to any page and get a chuckle. Like this one:

"Petition (June 1891) of Johannes Hell, unmarried, age 27,
born 13 Mar. 1863 at Bockelsess, Holstein, Germany, the son
of Vick Hell and Catharina Hell. He was naturalized on 27
Apr 1891. As his name is a cause of ridicule and jokes, he
wishes to change his name to John Hill. [H20]."

or this one:

"Petition (8 Sept. 1874) of Paulina Sands, of full age,
residing at 320 Broome St. Her maiden name was Paulina
Metz. On 9 Nov 1867 in NYC she married George L. Sands and
was divorced from him on 11 Apr. 1874. He annoys her and
she wishes to resume her maiden name of Paulina Metz.
[S10]."

Great stuff. He annoys her...

Another source for name changes (particularly women) are
divorce records. I, myself, changed my name back to my
maiden name via the court when I filed and received my
divorce. The only problem with this (genealogically
speaking) is that in NYS the records are sealed for 100
years!

Best regards. Nancy.
Nancy Coleman

http://www.genealogyPro.com/ncoleman.html

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rollie Littlewood" <>
To: <>
Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 8:49 AM
Subject: Re: [APG] Names at Ellis Island


> At 07:02 AM 12/3/2002 -0500, Nancy Coleman
<>
> wrote:
> >...If you take a look at the arrival record (ship's
manifest) you may
> see a series of numbers recorded (later) next to the
passenger's
> name. These numbers (recorded in the 20th Century)
generally are the a
> reference to the corresponding number on their
"certificate of arrival"
> document....
>
> When was the Certificate of Arrival document first
used? I've
> assumed 1906, but I've never verifed that. When, relative
to arrival
> and the naturalization process, was a specific immigrant's
certificate
> actually filled out? (One of the most interesting COAs
I've encountered
> was for someone who came across the US-Mexican border. The
"vessel"
> mentioned on the document was "foot bridge".)
>
>
> Rollie
>
>
> ==== APG Mailing List ====
> The Association of Professional Genealogists
> http://www.apgen.org/publications/apg-l/index.html
>

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