Mystic Seaport is probably well-known to many of you. When I was a kid, my parents took us there for a small vacation. We got to see a whaling ship, and we went, also, to see the museum for Sandwich Glass. Well little did I know what *else* I would find in connection with Mystic Seaport! Surfing for Wilson Fitzgerald, I came up with this URL: http://www.mysticseaport.org/library/manuscripts/coll/coll203/coll203index.co.html They have records of the schooner, PROVIDENCE, and in those records are some bills, etc., involving: Wilson Fitzgerald & Co. To quote the site: 1879-1889 The collection is contained primarily bills and receipts, etc., for expenses relative to the vessel's maintenance and the transportation of cargo. Also: During the period covered by these papers PROVIDENCE made approximately 132 trips from the Philadelphia/New Jersey area to various ports along the coast, carrying coal and other bulk cargo. Included is a voyage to Mantanzas, Cuba for sugar, but most trips were to ports in Massachusetts and Maine with loads of coal. Now there are a number of names of companies at that URL. Could one of them connect with your family member? Vince Summers