This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: McNamara Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/zV.2ADI/1842 Message Board Post: Would a child (young man) of 12 have had to file Declaration of Intentions in Philadelphia in 1866? The only dumb question is the question unasked. Researching Joseph Michael McNamara, b abt 1854, in Ireland, who fell from the sky into Alameda County, Berkeley, California in 1883. I have three or four different dates that he MAY have arrived from his native land, the County of Clare in Ireland. I am too old for this confusion as I am already confused. EEK! HELP!