How can I find out what my great grandparent's names were before they came to Am

Question:

How can I find out what my great grandparent's names were before they came to America?

My great grandparents came over to America through Ellis Island. They were from Russia and like many immigrants changed their names to more "american names" upon arriving. They were named Baker and the only one who may have known was my grandfather but he died before I was born and no one ever thought to ask him. How can I figure out what their names were before arriving in America?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: The first poster was close. The revisions in the forms started with the 1906 changes and affected everyone traveling to the US after 1900 (or who hadn't lived in their state for 18 months before the Sept 1905 deadline and had to wait to fill out the "long forms").

You also don't need to search for a member of the family who might (or might not) have the documents. If you know the state where your grandparents lived when they applied for citizenship, you can either get copies of the Declarations of Intent and Naturalization petitions for each from either the State Archives or the National Archives and Records Administration regional archives supporting that state.

The next thing to look for if they did file the long form is the names of their parents, town of birth, ship/date/port of arrival. Passenger lists were completed based on records given before they left Europe. Contrary to popular mythology, employees at Ellis Island did not routinely change names. They pulled the names from passenger lists and tags prepared by the ship's crew. Spelling errors were common if the handwriting on the documents was difficult to read or if the individual passenger were illiterate and couldn't clarify the situation. So if you can find the ship/port/date, you can pull the passenger list and see who arrived that day.

The next thing to research is the synagogue where they probably worshipped. Did they have sons who would have turned 13? If so, find his Bar mitzvah records and find out what was written about the family. Anglicized names somehow don't find their way into many religious records.