"However, family lore is that they had to
buy papers to travel from Lithuania to the United States, and could not
get their own so bought them from someone named Goldberg"

The thing is, there was no reason that they had to call themselves anything in particular in the US. Until driver's licenses and Social Security, they could be Rachmil Szmelkowicz one day, Hymie Goldberg the next, and Tom Jones the day after.

Sally Bruckheimer
Princeton, NJ