I wasn't quite sure where to post this question, but this forum seems pretty active and it could be immigration related, so I thought I'd try....

How, officially, did individuals change the spelling of their surnames?

For example, I have the surname CHRABASZCZEWSKI on a funeral card that was found after my grandmother passed away.

I believe this person to be the same or related to an individual with the surname CHRABOWSKI. So somewhere along the line, their name was obviously shortened/changed.

What are the possibilities of when and where this name change oficially took place? Where would the record of the change be found? Or were records kept of such changes?

When individuals came through the various ports into the US did they require identification?

I'm very new to researching my family's genealogy, but I have a pretty good start. I've been finding that some of the variations in spelling with the surnames that I'm researcing are simply transcription errors. But the one I list above is clearly not that.

If there is a resource that someone knows of, such as a website, that talks about how names where changed and how the changes were documented during or after immigration to the US I would be so grateful for a link!

Thanks!!