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Our family surname was mispronounced and mispelled on Staten Island during the immigration process. My great grandparents never bothered to change it back,it was easier and cheaper to keep it.
Yes, I've had a similar thing happen. On my grandmothers side, they were french and the census takers misspelled their name so much that they ended up keeping it that way. In the mystery of my father's side however, my surname, it's TOTALLY different. Not remotely the same name. Like going from Smith to Johnson, only even more extreme. I have a theory on why they chose this name, but haven't found paper proof of it yet. I don't record anything as fact until I can cross reference and verify it from at least three different legit resources.
