Welcome to America
QUESTION
Were surnames routinely changed when immigrants arrived at Ellis Island in New York?
MANY names were changed because of confusion over identity, illiteracy and language barriers. Most passengers arriving before World War I did not have travel documents such as passports, so there was nothing from which names could be copied by immigration officials.
Though each ship had a manifest with the names of its passengers, tickets for travel had often been bought by distant relatives, which could lead to mistakes in names caused by changes upon marriage.
Sometimes the tickets were sold on, which resulted in the migrant having a different name to that on the manifest. Officials insisted the immigration documents matched the names on their list, so recorded the wrong name.
Illiteracy was another problem, where passengers didn’t know how to spell their own names, while language difficulties could mean the correct spelling was misunderstood. Faced with long queues, officials would make a guess, sometimes anglicising it. For example, the Germanic name ending ‘stein’ might become stone.
Once a surname had been recorded on immigration documentation, it was almost impossible to get it corrected, so most migrants just accepted their new name.
Ellis Island was named after Samuel Ellis, who owned the island in the 1770s. It was bought by the US government in 1808 for use as a military fort guarding New York harbour, before becoming the city’s official immigration centre in 1890.
By the time of its closure in 1954, Ellis Island had handled more than 12 million migrants. It is now a museum and thousands of visitors go there each year to look up the arrival records for their families.
Bob Cubitt, Northampton.
MY FAMILY name appeared in the parish record of Methven, Perthshire, in 1695. Until I was called up aged 18, we spoke only in dialect.
I had never been called by my correct name until I went to school, where I changed from Proodfit to Proudfoot. I have found different spellings: Proodfit, Proudfit, Proudfoote and Proudfute (Fair
Maid of Perth). In 1740, Andrew Proudfoot emigrated to America. Being unable to read or write, when he was asked for his name, he replied ‘Proodfit. However, on his gravestone his name is Proudfit.
When later members of the family emigrated to Pennsylvania, they gave the correct spelling of Proudfoot, but this was treated as a separate name.
About 40 years ago, a High Court ruled that the correct name was Proudfoot and anyone with a different spelling could change it, but most stuck to the old spelling, which they had borne for more than 200 years.
Thomas Proudfoot (aka Tam Proodfit), Alresford, Hants.
QUESTION
Do human eyeballs grow as you get older?
THERE is a myth that eyeballs are fully grown at birth. Newborn babies’ eyes do appear to be large because they are already 70% of their adult size, each being about 16 mm wide.
Eyes undergo considerable growth during the first two years of life, reaching 22.5 mm wide. There is a final growth spurt during puberty where eyeballs reach their maximum size of 24 mm wide.
The only part of the eye that grows throughout the lifetime is the lens. Each weighs 20mg at birth and grows to 150 mg by the age of two. The increase becomes linear and the lenses then grow at a weight of 1.38 mg per year, so that an 80-yearold will have a lens weighing 250 mg.
While the lens becomes heavier, the size increase is negligible as it becomes compacted and remodelled as cells are added over time.
Andrew Lloyd-Williams, Abergavenny, Mons.
QUESTION
Who invented the ouija board?
SPIRIT writing, or Fuji, where a wand is waved above a tray of sand to draw characters, has a long history in Chinese folk tradition dating back to the Liu Song dynasty of AD420 to 479.
Following the advent of modern spiritualism in the mid-19th century, various means were attempted to contact the dead.
The first ouija board featuring a planchette (a teardrop-shaped device) and lettered board was patented by Elijah J. Bond, of Baltimore, in 1891 and marketed by the Kennard Novelty Company. Bond came up with the name ouija, according to US trademarks specification.
By 1892, the Kennard Novelty Company had been taken over and renamed the Ouija Novelty Company by employee William Fuld.
He claimed he had invented the word ouija, a fusion of the French and German words for ‘yes’, and that he made more than $1 million in profit.
After Fuld’s death, his family continued the business until 1966 when the patents were bought by Parker Brothers.
They brought out William Fuld Talking Board Set. Bond’s unmarked grave was ‘found’ by paranormal enthusiast Robert Murch in Green Mount cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.
Bond was given a new grave with a standard memorial on one side of the headstone and an imprint of a ouija board on the other.
Lesley Smith, Hereford.