My family’s last name, which is now Shemonia, was spelled Shemoney in the 1930’s but was changed to Shemonia due to my uncle Albert being in debt so he changed the spelling to Shemonia. My family’s origin was from the check Republic and the original spelling of our last name was, Schemonich. The spelling of our family name changed during the boat to the U.S. due to inability of recorders to spell, so they just wrote what they heard.