I still hold the point of view that Castlegarden.org's website leaves very much to be desired - it certainly doesn't compare at all to the Ellis Island site . For example, entering just the surname Galligan for the period 1830-1912 brings up 611 results, of which none indicated the place of last residence, but just four (4) results indicated the port of departure as Limerick. They don't indicate the manifest numbers, so one can't check that aspect out. Their 'Advanced Search' facility does not provide for entering a surname. But for the same period, entering Limerick as the departure port showed a total of over 23,000 names - no details, just a request for $45.- reasonable enough, mind you - to receive the data, which would be over 22,000 non-Galligan names. Even though $45. is reasonable, I would be wasting my time and money, for as I said above, the 611 of the name did not give the place of last residence. In an email I brought these points to their attention, but have not as yet received a reply from them. Pádraig Mór [ An Sean-Ghabhar - Milis agus Dilis!] [The Old Goat - Sweet and Faithful !] **** Please Reply Only to the List **** ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dennis Ahern" <ahern@world.std.com> To: <IRL-CORK-L@rootsweb.com> Cc: <padraigogealagain@rogers.com> Sent: Friday Aug 12, 2005 9:01 AM Subject: harvesting clues from Castle Garden > > While individual passengers may be listed as "from" Ireland or Great > Britain, it can sometimes be fruitful to determine where the vessel came > from. You can find this by looking at microfilm of the manifest itself. > While the majority of ships left from Liverpool or Queenstown, sometimes > smaller vessels are shown as having originated in places like Youghal or > Waterford, or even Galway. This information can help you focus your > search on a particular region. For example, with so many vessels picking > up passengers in Queenstown, why would someone take a boat from Youghal > unless they lived near there. And it's unlikely that anyone from the > southern counties would make their way to Derry to get a boat for America. > None of this is definitive. It's just deductive reasoning. > > It's also worth looking at the manifest itself to learn how big the vessel > was and how long the voyage took. It doesn't add genealogical > information, but it does tell you something about their experience. > > -dja