my grandfather Simon … maybe I’ve learned something new

Simon Ghertner’s World War I draft registration indicates his birth date was August 25, 1882. Leonard Ghertner, his son, had told me the name was originally spelled Gertner but was changed (perhaps at Ellis Island, NYC). Read this later post for a more plausible explanation of the spelling of his surname. Unknown sources led me to believe original arrival in North America was Canada. I found Simon Gertner (age 18) arrived July 1900 on the Lake Montreal into Montreal (having sailed from Liverpool, UK). The 1920 US Census listed Simon Ghertner, who spoke Yiddish, as having entered the United States in 1902, at which time the letter ‘h’ might have been added to the name.