Yes, I suppose that would be true.  I didn't really say at what location
the recording was done.  But the records being transcribed are located
at (or were) Ellis Is.  Many of the ships left from France, Spain, or
England (I think)...so, 1) the handwriting would be European - hence,
unlike modern American writing and I presume unfamilar to many/most of
the volunteer transcribers of today...and 2) the person making the list
may not be too literate...and not familiar with spelling names not from
their country, even tho most Europeans know more than one language.  The
writing on the documents I saw does look "European"...and that is a
great part of the problem for being unable to decipher some of  it.
And, the people giving their name and city of origin may not have been
literate...so guessed at the spelling also!

>-----Original Message-----
>From: George Myers [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
>Sent: Friday, August 19, 2005 12:05 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: mystery object: "Pair of Shillards"
>
>
>Just a point I read that the problem of Ellis Island 
>transcriptions of family names was that the "boarding lists" 
>were used, that is what was recorded when the passengers got 
>onto the ship (a boat with decks) and errors were often not 
>the fault of those on Ellis Island. I am not too sure how true 
>that is. It was odd to find out (maybe a myth) that Franz 
>Boaz, complete with fencing scar across his face from school 
>days in Heidelberg, Germany, was doing "craniometric" 
>measurements there under contract with the Government to 
>determine the "wholesome" effect of dairy consumption on the 
>human physiology, at least as I was aurally informed. Lo and 
>behold, weez gettin' bigger.
>
>George Myers
>