Not that it has any direct bearing on this discussion of shrinking ancestors, but Carol's remark about name transcriptions reminded me of the story of a woman I once worked with. Her surname was Ellis. Her patrilineal ancestors' surname was NOT Ellis. They immigrated from some eastern European country (I don't know which anymore, and they've changed identities in the mean time anyway) and, upon arriving at Ellis Island, attempted to give the recorder their actual surname, which was apparently long and riddled with dipthongs and other oddities (to the ear of the recorder). After several unsuccessful attempts to figure out the name, the recorder evidently gave up and assigned them a surname based on their location at the moment -- Ellis Island.
Fortunately, the descendents had maintained knowledge of the old-country family surname, and my colleague was able to return to the town from which her ancestors immigrated and meet family members still using the "correct" family name.
Jeff
 
Jeffrey L. Boyer, RPA
Project Director
Office of Archaeological Studies, Museum of New Mexico
mail: P.O. Box 2087, Santa Fe, New Mexico  87504
physical: 407 Galisteo Street, Suite B-100, Santa Fe, New Mexico  87501
tel: 505.827.6387          fax: 505.827.3904
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
"It might look a bit messy now, but just you come back in 500 years time."  --Terry Pratchett
 

________________________________

From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY on behalf of Carol Serr
Sent: Wed 5/30/2007 10:52 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: important database - Ellis Island



I wondered about (some of) those thots....since my mom claims her dad
was 6ft...and I don't remember him quite that tall (as tall as my dad).
I was thinking more like 5'10".  But certainly not the 5'7" the Ellis
Is. record has him as...since that would be barely taller than me....and
he wasn't short (for a man).

I don't remember (when I was over there) the Basques in my grandparents
home town being of shorter stature than 'other' people.  The women may
have been a bit 'short'...especially when they got matronly.  Tho they
arent statuesque either.

Maybe no one cared too much about accuracy...filling out the form. ??
They sure didn't spell a lot of names correctly...since, they didn't
know the languages, etc.  And then the volunteer (LDS?) transcribers who
entered all the data in the last decade...didnt know how to read the
'fancy' handwriting of yore...nor are familiar with spellings in other
languages...so many names - while readable [to me anyway] on the
handwritten form - got garbled when entered.  Making for a creative
challenge when trying to search on relatives.

What I found ammusing looking thru all the manifest records...was that
all the folks from my grandparents home town [that came to NM]...used
the same PO Box #...in Vaughn. I could just imagine a notice posted at
the town bar (or store)...advising immigrants "Remember to tell them 'PO
Box 34'"...   Of course, it made sense...since why pay for multiple
boxes...when they 1) probably didn't get much mail, and 2) all knew each
other (more  or less)...so would let others know when they had mail.
The men came over to be shepherders...so werent exactly living in town
any way.

Don't think they shrunk at sea (ha ha)...but, that does remind me of my
grandma's story...while on the ship coming here...of being served
soup...with pearl tapioca as a thickener.  She had never seen that
before...and thot they had served them 'frog egg' soup.  Ha ha.  (I
don't remember if she ate it)

>-----Original Message-----
>From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
>Behalf Of geoff carver
>Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 12:25 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: important database - Ellis Island
>
>that could be interesting; two issues come to mind: people
>remembered others being taller than they were, or else there
>was some concerted effort to maintain the idea that
>"mediterranean races" were shorter than they really were?
>maybe people get shorter after a few days at sea...?
>these are just off the top of my pointy head, not meant to be
>taken at all seriously, but... obviously worth checking out
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Carol Serr" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 1:38 AM
>Subject: Re: important database - Ellis Island
>
>
>if anyone knows about the physical height notations on the Ellis
>Island immigrant ship manifest records?
>

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