MY FAMILY OBJECT

Changing our Name...

            I am a third generation American on my father’s side, and a fourth generation American on my mother’s side.  My great-great grandfather on my mother’s side migrated to the United States from Warsaw, Poland with his wife and his two children. They arrived in New York in June 1904.  In February 1924, my great grandfather changed their family name from ####### to *****.  We were always told that the name was changed because it was hard for people to pronounce, but I am sure that the feeling of wanting to belong had a weighing factor on the change as well.

My great-grandfather, on my dad’s side, migrated to the United States from Germany (the exact location in Germany is unknown) sometime between the years 1874 and 1906.  On September 8, 1941, my grandfather, a first generation American, legally changed their family name from ########## to *****. We can only assume that the change was made due to the outlook American’s had on Germans at that time. 

            Even though the names were legally changed on both sides of my family tree, and even though the new names have been used since the changes, the old names remain a large part of my family’s legacy.  Therefore, the item that I have chosen to share represents these changes: my great-grandfather’s application for name change.  With these papers comes the heritage of the ##########/***** family.  I only wish our family still had the papers for the name change on my mother’s side.

See The Application

Where is Poland and Germany?

 

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