Wow, you are right...there were many possible ports where a Scot could arrive in the USA...and Canada as well. It's tough. I hope he has an unusual name? Or is that too much to hope for? Was he naturalized a citizen? I think at that time you had to be a resident and have a job for 5 years after arriving in the USA but I am not sure...but you can google for it. There were different rules at different times and the applications showed either a little or a lot. New York from Liverpool is a good guess as many came that way, at least from Ireland. I would wonder if Ancestry.com would have access to port records for at least some years. Also Boston has a place where you can query for ship's lists and they will even search for your ancestor but you need a pretty good idea of when he came...or at least a small range of years. Recently I have been searching for the arrival of an ancestor of mine whose daughter married my Armstrong grandfather. Her father's name was Joseph Milligan. There is a genealogy service to which you have to subscribe if you want to use but every week or a couple of times a week they have free searches on different topics. It's: www.GenealogyLookups.com and I think you can sort of subscribe to the newsletters without paying, then take advantage of the day's free look-up service when you get your e-mail. For instance they recently had look-ups for the port of New York for certain years in the 1800s so I asked for a look-up for Joseph Milligan and they found one who is a good candidate to be mine...not sure but the age is very close. I will also try to find Boston arrivals and see if I can find a similar name and dates. I know there are other sites for ships' lists, etc., but you do have to poke around a lot and I don't know how you can avoid that. Give that a try and see if you have any luck. Do you know anybody who subscribes to ancestry.com or does your local public library (ours does)? Have you googled for the name of your person? You don't say if this is an Armstrong and if it isn't, have you subscribed to the surname list for that name? I know these things seem kind of elementary but sometimes we forget the things that might be the most obvious. Good luck..let us know if you find anything. Sorry not to be of more help. Cousin Marilyn ----- Original Message ----- From: "James D. Allen" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 12:12 PM Subject: Re: [ARMSTRONG] ARMSTRONGE, De Mormaer & De Dampierre > Marilyn and List: > > Any idea where I'd go to get passenger list for a Scotsman who came to > the US (ending up in either MA or RI) after the Civil war (I assume > 1865-72) from an unknown port of departure? > > I've drawn blanks from searching the standard on line or MA Archive > passenger lists, and am not real familiar with different books or other > resources out there. There are so many ports and boats, > I'm not sure where to best spend my energy. When you refer to "ships > records" is that a single source or do you have to search each ship > somehow? > > Any suggestions? > > Thanks. > > > > > > Marilyn Otterson wrote: >> Hello, Faye, >> You have given very little information to help find more about your >> William >> Armstrong. (It's a very common name.) >> >> You might try researching ships' records for 1820 arrivals to Australia >> from >> Ireland. It's possible you could find more information about your >> William >> there. Do you know if the children who were left behind were with their >> mother? Do you happen to know her name? Do you know the names of the >> kids? >> Can you find immigration records about William in Australia...sometimes >> those reveal more information about the person arriving there. (For >> instance, there were probably 100 or more William Armstrongs in Ireland >> in >> 1820 and you would need to know what country William came from.) Do you >> know if he ever was able to bring the children to be with him in >> Australia? >> Without knowing more, I think you are going to have a difficult time >> finding >> more information about William's family in Ireland. >> >> Sorry not to be of more help. >> >> Marilyn >> >> > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message