One of my ancestor's cousins was Reisel (Rose) Hoffert. She married a man by the name of Benjamin Kaner in Kolbuszowa. They came over separately. On his naturalization form he said he came over as Benjamin Hoffert (not Kaner). I thought it was a mistake, but found him on the 1908 manifest as Benjamin Kaner. All records after immigration show them as Benjamin and Rose Kaner, and their kids were named Kaner. Any idea why he would use his wife's maiden name for immigration, and only that time?
--
Carl Kaplan

KAPLAN Minsk, Belarus
EDELSON, EDINBURG Kovno, Lithuania
HOFFERT, BIENSTOCK< BIENENSTOCK Kolbuszowa, Galicia
STEINBERG, KLINGER, WEISSBERG, APPELBERG Bukaczowce, Galicia

Carl,

The same situation is seen in my husband's family from Gorodek near Bialystok.

He used his wife's surname for several years after arrival, and then changed the surname.  His brother used their father's surname.  They both arrived in The U.S. in the mid-1880's.

In my family from Ustrzyki Dolne there is one person who used his mother's maiden surname, and that branch retains that name to this day.  His siblings all used their father's surname. 

So, why one sibling using the mother's maiden name, and the other siblings using the father's?  They all arrived in The U.S. within a few years of each other circa 1910's.

Does anyone have an explanation why this occurred with some immigrants?

Regards,

Sherri Bobish

Searching: RATOWSKY / CHAIMSON (Ariogala / Ragola, Lith.)
WALTZMAN / WALZMAN (Ustrzyki Dolne / Istryker, Pol.)
LEVY (Tyrawa Woloska, Pol.)
LEFFENFELD / LEFENFELD / FINK, KALTER (Daliowa/ Posada Jasliska, Pol.)
BOJDA / BERGER (Tarnobrzeg, Pol.)
SOKALSKY / SOLON / SOLAN / FINGER(MAN) (Grodek, Bialystok, Pol.)
BOBISH / APPEL (Odessa?)

My cousins and I worked for years to identify their grandfather whose name, in US documents, was the same as his wife's maiden name. His wife's family is well documented in the Lithuania records on jewishgen, but there was no sign of him.  Eventually, a complicated tale involving DNA led us to a person who turned out to be the grandfather's sister, whose maiden name was known,  Researching that name led to a family in Mexico who said "it's not our real name. Our ancestor was paid by a wealthy family to take this name and go into the military.  The timing of that event seemed to match the time when the grandfather took his wife's name and emigrated to the US. Not a smoking gun, but very likely.
--
Peter Cohen
California

I imagine that one reason for using one's wife's surname to emigrate might be because one was liable for military service or had some other black mark logged against one's true name.  I know that in the 20th century, immigration to Canada was barred for people with a range of disabilities and diseases, as well as for a criminal record. This may well have been the case for the United States as well. 
--
Eva Lawrence
St Albans, UK.

I struggled for years to locate my great grandfather's immigration info.  I suspect it was the new wife who purchased the tickets under her own [former] name, the registrar garbled the ages and names of the children, putting the husband's given name as a child and so on.  Her son by her first marriage used a variety of surnames, finally settling on one that was 'unknown' in our family.  But I eventually found him, and my g-grandfather.

Shirley Ginzburg
Aptos, California