Hi Paul,
Family lore may talk about name changes but be aware that the Ellis Island records are the spellings right from the "old country" and contrary to stories they were not changed at Ellis Island. Those ship manifests are as they were written in the place of origin of the immigrant. Also those places listed as Austria in 1908 in fact became Italy! As you can see from my previous post Basilo came from Cormons, Austria which became Italy later.
That region until after WW I, 1918, was in the Kuestanland province of Austria. "Cormons is a small, delightful pre-Roman town. It is close to the park Bosco Plessiva, with its inviting wine cellars and agro-tourism (farm holidays). It offers the possibility of practising various sports and of going on long horse rides across a beautiful landscape reminiscent of the charming hills of Tuscany." taken from the web page below
http://www.itwg.com/en_fri03.asp#collioItlian gen page
http://www.italiansrus.com/Robert Jerin