Daily AncestorFamily myths, checked against the records
The name changed at Ellis Island, the three brothers, the courthouse that burned. Where each story comes from, what the records show, and how to test your own.
Did Ellis Island change your ancestor's name?
Almost never. Ellis Island inspectors checked arrivals against passenger lists written at the port of departure; most name changes came later, by the family's own choice.
Rarely, and not that wayDid three brothers really come over together?
Sometimes brothers did emigrate, but the tidy tale of three who sailed together and split north, south and west is rarely what the records show; families usually came one by one.
Arms belong to people, not namesDoes your surname have a family coat of arms?
No surname has a coat of arms. Arms were granted to one person and passed to that person's descendants, so most people who share a name have no right to any particular arms.
Almost never trueHas your family name always been spelled the same way?
Most families find several spellings of their name in old records. Spelling was not standardized until the late 1800s, and clerks and census takers wrote names as they heard them.
No such title existedWas great-grandmother really a Cherokee princess?
A Cherokee Nation citizen explains there were never Cherokee princesses: chiefs were chosen, not royal. A Cherokee ancestor is a real question for tribal rolls, not family memory.
Mostly lost, not entirelyWas the whole 1890 census destroyed?
Most of the 1890 population schedules were lost after a 1921 fire, but fragments naming over 6,160 people survive, along with many special schedules of Union veterans and widows.
Sometimes, but rarely everythingWere all the records really lost when the courthouse burned?
Courthouse fires were real and some losses are permanent, but a fire rarely took everything: deeds were often re-recorded, some books survived, and copies and other records sit elsewhere.