Hi Jeanette, I couldn't find anything on ancestry for the U.S. but did find several trees with the following Thomas William Portland SMITH son of Robert and Barbara born May 15, 1841 at sea - possibly at the port in Ireland, or on the way to India or on the ocean in Indonesia baptised St Thomas, Stepney Oct 7, 1841, father a policeman (image on ancestry) Emigrated to New Zealand, married 1872 and died in 1907 in New Zealand. I am presuming this is yours given the exact names and dates. If you would like more let me know and I'll put you in touch with the tree owners.   Paul Eggleton ________________________________ From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2012 4:43 PM Subject: [MDX] US records. Up till now I've had no experience with US records at all, being under the impression that none of my ancestors ever went there. But, I've just found a letter from my elusive Thomas William Portland SMITH in which he states that "the happiest three years of my life were spend in the United States..." . I've got no idea which part of the US he means, but the era would have been during 1841-1860 approximately. Can anyone on the list give me any ideas about where to start searching? It's likely that he went there with his parents, Robert & Barbara SMITH, who were Irish. The last address I have for them is Stepney, London in 1841.  I realise that Smith somewhere in the US is a big ask!! Jeanette ************************************** Send your List messages using **PLAIN TEXT** and always **TRIM AWAY** superfluous old messages in replies. **MEANINGFUL Subject Lines - who, what, where, when, with SURNAMES in CAPITAL letters** List Admin can be contacted at: [email protected] ------------------------------- 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