Thanks for the detailed and useful information.  One other wrinkle in the story is that my great-grandfather Max Shorris (“Jossel Flink”) came in 1898, and his wife and two daughters came in 1901.  According to Lithuanian records, they had a son born in 1893, but the son did not come with either of my great-grandparents to America.  Sadly, the apparent son (who went on to marry and have five children) died at the hands of the Nazis in 1941.  I have no evidence that my grandfather (born later in America) or anyone else in the family knew of this additional sibling.  It makes me wonder if there is some sort of connection between Max using an assumed name and the son that was being left behind.