Nathan Levy (Boskaboynik) - Where does the name Boskaboynik come from?

When Nathan was my maternal granmother's father. George was her brother whom I don't remember; he died when I was 6.

Family legend:

When members of a family arrived at Ellis Island at different times, they often ended up with different names. The way the story is told, some had their names shortened, some had their names changed to the name of "their tribe" (Levy for Levi, in this case).

Many of the names in this section were originally entered by my mother, over 13 years ago. She would have entered them as she knew them. By that I mean she wouldn't have researched any official documents such as ship manifests. I've never gone back and verified that the names that way either.

In the case of George Bosco, I don't know if that was his legal name (assigned on immigration) or just the name he always used.

Before I was born, there was pressure on my mother from her mother's family to name me "Bosco", but fortunately she resisted...

I was always told that my grandmother''s (Esther Greece) maiden name was Boskoboynik. Possibly it was changed to Levy on her arrival to America.

My impression is that in the parts of Eastern Europe where my ancestors lived, the adoption of family names (imposed by governments, largely to facilitate tax collection and military drafts) was taken less seriously by the Jewish population than it was in Western Europe.