got this from the March 22,2001 notation in Ancestry Daily news if you missed it. Think I have been misinterpreting N.D as North Dakota ... When it should have been N .O. for New Orleans.. Patti TODAY @ ANCESTRY ============================================================ Today's featured column is "GC Extra," by Elizabeth Kelley Kerstens, CGRS. In "Amazing E-mails," Liz discusses the convenient world of e- mail and the value of e-mail etiquette. You can read today's column at: http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library/columnists/main.htm ============================================================ ANCESTRY QUICK TIP ============================================================ Discovering how my great uncle came from Germany to his new home in southern Indiana was a puzzling task. He had filed a declaration of intent giving a date of entry in 1852. But, just because other German relatives had come through New York, I assumed he had, too. When I looked at the DI index, I noticed the abbreviation, 'N.D.', meaning no date--or so I thought. But a year later, reviewing out this entry in another source, the print made it clearer than before: this was not N.D. but 'N.O.'--in other words, New Orleans. Now I traced his entry quickly enough in the passenger lists and learned some extra things about his family at the time. It is important to look at abbreviations carefully, and consider more than one possible interpretation. Don't let a year go by before you glean all the information they hold! Carol Haywood Santa Rosa, CA