Reddit mentions of A Rosenberg by Any Other Name: A History of Jewish Name Changing in America (Goldstein-Goren Series in American Jewish History Book 9)

I too come from a name-changy family (at least twice in the last 150 years, according to family legend), and just finished reading Kirsten Fermaglich's book on the matter which specifically focuses on New York Jews.

Honestly, a decent resource I've found is Ancestry.Com. They do have a great number of government documents and records scanned and searchable, which can at least give you a decent timeline of changes here in the states. It also helps flesh out the life story of the previous generation for things like business applications, military draft and discharge papers, and other milestones that might not have made it into the old photo album.

Good luck! Hope you find what you're looking for

Well to find out if your ancestors were Jewish, which is your real question, you need to do more genealogical research.

Look for other clues in census records or documents. Was a language spoke ever recorded as Yiddish or Hebrew or Even “Jewish” for a family member? Almost sure proof they were Jewish.

The census unfortunately for genealogists never recorded religion explicitly, to my knowledge. And I dont believe other ID documents did at this time in history. If you want to be a real detective, you could see if the area where an ancestor lived was historically a Jewish area. We didnt exactly have ghettoes in America, but even to this day to an extent there are “Jewish areas”. In c1900 certain parts of NYC were very Jewish and race (perhaps a little racist) demographers even made race maps of the city. Of course there were exceptions, and you had an italian or german or scandanavian or irish immigrant living in an area with lots of Jews. Or like one of my ancestors, you might have a Jew living across the street from a churcch... so dont use just one factor!

It is a myth that the names were changed on ellis island. However, Jews often changed their names in response to antisemitism they encountered. Top universities like Harvard instituted quotas limiting the max number of Jews they would admit, for example. Something similar happened in the white collar job market, but with lower quota limits...that is, there werent quotas but they really didnt want any of us! And then there was discrimination in real estate sales—which is sadly part of why you get areas that are very Jewish and very not Jewish.

Motivation to Americanize for some was definitely present, however the process in the Jewish case was mot accurately described as anglicization. Most Jews faci discrimination to get into Haarvard spoke very good english and dressed and acted like Americans already; the idea was not to sound more English but to camouflage the Obvious Jewish part of the name and create the possibility of doubt while still preserving some part of the heritage. A great book on name changing:

https://www.amazon.com/Rosenberg-Any-Other-Name-Goldstein-Goren-ebook/dp/B07C5WCR1H