Re: Sylvia
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In reply to:
Sylvia
3/08/98
Many names wre changed by choice, sometimes to elude others of heritage to get housing and jobs.Many times the person taking down notes for ship records or immigration records were either German or English and used a phonetic type of spelling.For instance, I have seen my family's name Da Silva Da Santo.However, "Silva" has been "Sylvia" and "Silvia".It looks like "Silva" went from Silviera to Da Silva to Silva.No wonder there are so many different spellings.Also, you have to consider many people came to America and could not read, write or speak American English.They did the best they could and some were not well educated in their own tongue regarding reading and writing either.Just a thought.
Lisa Looney