Asturian-American Migration Forum

While researching a branch of my family that settled in West Virginia, I was surprised to find on my great-uncle's Alien Registration Form that he had entered the US under the name of Bernardo Solis Garcia. This was quite a shock for all of us because he was only know to us as Vicente Arrojo.
I checked with his daughter about this and she says that she never heard the name Bernardo Solis Garcia before.

All of the other information on the form was correct. His address, birthdate and even his nickname were what we knew.

My question is this, how could he immigrate under a false name and then later on alien registration form admit that he did it without being deported? A better question is WHY would he use a false name?

Por la Guerra Civil?

He left Spain in 1917. That was before the Civil War, correct?

Some immigrants had pasts they wanted to leave behind. Maybe he had a legal problem in Spain. Another possibility is that he had more than one family. I have heard of several cases in which men left a family in Spain and started a new family in the US. Often the family in the US never found out about the previous family left behind in Spain.

Do you know what name is on his birth certificate?

It's worth noting, too, that names on birth certificates are sometimes times different from the names people were known by. My grandfather has a name on his birth certificate that his children had never heard him use. In some cases, there was an error in reporting or recording the birth. I suspect in other cases, the person didn't like or didn't use the full name.

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Algunos inmigrantes tuvieran un pasado que querían dejar atrás. Tal vez tuvo un problema legal en España. Otra posibilidad es que tuvo más de una familia. He oído de varios casos en que los hombres dejaron una familia en España y comenzaron una nueva familia en los EE.UU. A menudo, la familia en los EE.UU. nunca se enteró de la primera familia que quedó en España.

¿Sabes cuál nombres y apellidos están en su partida de nacimiento?

Vale la pena notar, también, que los nombres y apellidos en los partidas de nacimiento a veces son diferentes a los nombres que se llaman a las personas. Mi abuelo tuvo un nombre en su partida de nacimiento que sus hijos no recuerdan que empleó. En algunos casos, se produjo un error en dar la información un familiar o en registrarlo el funcionario. Sospecho que en otros casos, la persona no lo gustaba o no utilizaba el nombre completo.

Thank you so much for the answer to my question. But, how is it possible that he actually immigrated with another name ? In other words, if his name was really Bernardo Solis Garcia, how could he have settled and registered as an alien under a wholly different name (Vincent Arrojo) which is not even close to his "real" name? Isn't that illegal?

Also, do you have any idea why my grandmother would acknowledge him as her relative? I have no idea where to start to find the answers. Do you have any suggestions?

Do you have his birth certicate or baptism certificate? What names are on those? Even days apart, the names may be different.

I suspect that immigration has always been the realm of tricks and mistakes.

Ron Gonzalez has Ellis Island information that shows a child traveling with his family, although he has no idea of who that would have been. My family's records have conflicting or erroneous information about where they were coming from, where they were going to, and which family members they knew in the US and Cuba.

Beyond what Bernardo may have done, many who entered at Ellis Island were actually *given* different names by officials. It may be that the officials couldn't spell their names or understand what they were saying. Or maybe the immigration officials wanted to Americanize their names in order to help them integrate into American culture.

Maybe someone else has a different answer?

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¿Tiene su partida de nacimiento o el partida de bautismo? ¿Cuáles nombres/apellidos aparecen en esas? Incluso pocos días de diferencia, los nombres suelen ser diferentes.

Sospecho de que el acto de inmigración siempre ha sido el reino de trucos y errores.

Ron González tiene información de Ellis Island que muestra a un niño que viajaba con su familia, a pesar de que no tiene ni idea de quien podría ser. Los registros de mi familia tienen información contradictoria o errónea sobre de dónde han venido, a dónde están yendo y los nombres de familiares en Cuba y los EE.UU.

Más allá de lo que Bernardo pudo haber hecho, muchos de los que entraron por Ellis Island en realidad estaban *dado* distintos nombres por los funcionarios. Puede ser que los funcionarios no supieran deletrear sus nombres o no entendieran lo que estaban diciendo los extranjeros. O tal vez los funcionarios de inmigración quisieran "americanizar" los nombre con el fin de ayudarles a integrarse en la cultura americana.

¿Tal vez alguien tenga una respuesta distinta?