I'm sure a lot of you get the e-newsletter from Family History Magazine. But this article stuck out as something that might be of interest to the members of the list. Especially the mention of those immigrants who were detained for whatever reason. My Polish grandfather was detained for eight days because he was just a few months shy of the minimum age of 16 (to emigrate alone). I hadn't been able to find his exact manifest and used the "missing manifests" website to page through all the documents for my grandfather's particular ship. I did find him on the listing, and also on the list of detained individuals. From that I also discovered the name of his brother, who apparently had to come from Ohio to get him. The detained list was at the front of the group of documents for my grandfather's ship. This article also indicates it could be at the end. Name Changes at Ellis Island Q: Were names actually changed by immigration officials at Ellis Island? A: No documented case proves that any immigrant's name was changed by Ellis Island officials. The passenger lists were prepared at the port of departure, using the papers the emigrant provided. The blank lists were provided to the shipping lines by the United States and were to be filled in as the passengers boarded the ship. Names were copied from the documents carried by the emigrants. On board the ship the officials were required to document any births or deaths that occurred during the passage. Once the ship arrived in New York harbor, the first-class and cabin passengers disembarked at a pier, and the steerage passengers were transported by ferry to Ellis Island (or Castle Garden, depending on the time frame) for processing. Numerous pictures of immigrants who had slips of paper bearing numbers attached to their clothing appear in the many books on immigration. These numbers corresponded to the list number that the immigrant appeared on. Officials asked the same questions that were asked when the passengers boarded the ship. The officials were instructed merely to verify the answers and had no need to write any names down—they were already recorded on the list. If an immigrant appeared to be ill or of questionable character, was a woman traveling alone, or perhaps gave different answers than what was recorded on the list, she might have been detained. Her name would have been transcribed onto the list of detained passengers, usually at the end of the passenger list (for New York records only), and a record of all inquiries regarding that individual was maintained. A woman traveling alone was detained until a male relative showed up to get her. Many times the detained passenger list states the name and relationship of that male relative; in such instances you will have even more information. Best wishes, Jackie Researching: ~~~~~~~Poland~~~~~~~ ADAMOWICZ - BANASZEK - BURDA CHOJNACKI / HOJNACKI MIKULSKI / MIKOLSKY CIEBIEN~ - MAZIK - KROL / KRUL ~~~~~~~Croatia~~~~~~~ OCVIRAK / OCVIREK - SNEPERGER