Greek translation: John Zarbs - can't find on Immigration Records or Ship Manifests to America?

Question

My husband's grandfather immigrated to Baltimore, MD in 1875 from the Isle of Crete, Greece, but I have not been able to find him on any of the Immigration Records or Ship Manifests. We know his name to be John Zarbs, but some of the census reports have it spelled as Zarps, Zark, Zarbes, Zerbes & Zarbis. I was told that he may have changed his name upon entering this country. Any idea what his name is in Greek, and what name I should be looking for? Thank you.

Answer 1

Hi, I did a few searches on Ancestry and I see several possible name variations.  Normally, at least in my experience, the name-changing occurred a while after the immigrant had arrived in the US and not at the moment he/she arrived.  The reason for changing their names was primarily to sound more American, a sort of "americanization" of the surname.

Back to Ancestry, here are several name possibilities you might search:

Johannis

Johannes

Joannis

surname possibilities:

Zerbissias

Zervos

Zurapas

Zervas

Zervakos

Zorbas

In addition, you might search for what the "normal" route was from Crete to the US back then, and attempt to narrow down the number of possible ships that he would have most likely taken.  I'm seeing on Ancestry that people from Greece came from various points of departure on their voyage to the US (France, Italy, UK, Patras Greece, etc.).

I hope that helps!