Ok, Thanks for the replies. 1. No he wasn't a priest.....Protestant Irish lol and no sister Eileen. "Was this James Cunningham by chance a priest, with a sister named Eileen? ...Kim Danielsen?" 2. I do not know the name of the Aunt he is referring to in his letter to his mother in 1938. He only mentions her daughter Anne and a George Hendren by name. Think George was only a friend of the family. He does say that his Aunt (who was buried the day he wrote the letter) was now resting in a lovely cemetery in Brooklyn along-side her husband. Can't find any other close family who also went to America. Also he may have called her Aunt but she may have been a close friend of his mother's as well.....will try and check this with my mother-in-law who is 93 and still has all faculties. "She, the poster has to track the family she referenced as his Aunt as perhaps were the Aunt and cousins are buried maybe James is at the same cemetery" 3. His full name was James McCullough Cunningham but he seems to have dropped the McCullough after arriving in NY, except for official documents. i.e. Application for Social Security Number, Application for Citizenship etc. 4. Can't locate him in the 1940 Census-unless he wasn't in NY for some reason.....or he just dodged the census taker. 5. His social security number was definitely 092-05-0614 I have a copy of his original application. So if you find this number in the SSDI it only gives Oct 72 and New York as death information, no address or zip code. "Name: James Cunningham State of Issue: New York Date of Birth: Thursday July 16, 1908 Date of Death: October 1972 Est. Age at Death: 64 years, 2 months" This is the correct one. 6. Don't know if he ever married, that's another reason I'm hunting for his Death Certificate. I did apply to somewhere in NY with the SS number and Oct 72 for death certificate but the one I received wasn't the right one and numerous emails to the place with no replies....so guess they aren't interested in fixing it.....then again it may be the wrong place for where he died and the one I got the only James Cunningham died Oct 1972 that they had on record. Why can't you guys have a central repository per State for official BDM records like we do in Australia (per State) and England, nationally? Thanks for any input. Kate Cunningham