What's In a Name?

Our research continued and we began to search for passenger manifests for our ancestors. We expected to easily find our grandfather's manifest. We were sadly mistaken. We knew his name, year of arrival, port of arrival, and place of birth. Searching the Ellis Island website, we searched for his name and found nothing. We tried variations of the spelling and found nothing. An unexpected brick wall? Time to start thinking out of the box. Maybe he traveled under a different name. One he didn't use in the United States. We knew the first name he was born with was different from the first name he commonly used. We tried that and it didn't work. Now on to the last name. He always used his mother's maiden name in Europe and in the United States. We had only searched that name. It was time to search using his father's last name. The combination of his birth first name and father's last name was a success. We found the manifest. Note to self: when you can't find someone under their usual last name, try their other parent's last name.

Jacobson and Jacobson Genealogy Researchers  http://www.bocafengshui.com/genealogy.html  helping you break through your genealogical brick walls.