I feel like this is especially an issue in America because, so often, the genealogical trail goes cold just a few generations back. Also, the phrase "easy times make weak men/people" is so true.
You have to be right about the town. I can't tell you how happy I am you've deciphered the town Taras came from! This has been a family mystery for years because we couldn't find anything about it. We just figured it was a clerical error made by the census taker. His surname was something completely different before he came to America -- Prostopunik or something close to that (I'll have to dig up the document that has his surname listed). We have no clue why it was changed to Fmura. We originally thought it was changed by Ellis Island staff because there's always been the rumor that they would change people's names when they couldn't communicate with the people they were processing but I've learned recently that this rumor was untrue. Many of the people coming to America wanted a fresh start and chose different names themselves, which seems odd to me. Maybe some were running from something or just didn't want to be found?
Thank you @honeydue! I really appreciate your help here, a new piece to the puzzle was revealed. I hope you have a wonderful week and I'm looking forward to your contribution to Memoir Monday!
It does seem strange! I know I've heard it said about Asian immigrants, for instance, that they changed their names so it would be easier to integrate in a new community since their real names would be difficult to pronounce (as I'm sure would be the case for Slavic names, also) and would contribute to that sentiment of "othering".
My pleasure. Hope it's the right one - it was literally the first thing that came up on Google, so can't take too much credit for it :D
You're likely right, they probably were trying to choose names that would make them more likely to be accepted and assimilate. That's so opposite of how protective we are of our racial/national identities now.
Funny! I have no idea why finding the town online was so difficult for us? I even had a Russian friend of mine (who lives here) try to help and he thought it was a clerical error. I wonder if Google search results are somehow different in America? Time to turn on that VPN and find out. : )