Quote:
Originally Posted by Oren[_2_]
Immigration employees at Ellis Island (NYC) were not always good at
reading and writing. Language barriers, etc. Many times they changed
the spelling of surnames on entry documents. What ever they wrote on
paper was what your last name was  |
Ditto for immigration employees in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada after WWII.
When my dad and the rest of his family got off the boat in Halifax, the immigration employee's translator asked them what their last name was. They responded "Kelebaj" where the last sylable "baj" was pronounced "bye" as in Good bye. The immigration man wrote down "Kelebay", and it's been that way ever since.
So, not only did the spelling change, but the pronunciation did as well. And I expect that was a common occurance for the millions of immigrants who came to North America over the past century or so.