Hi Ron, You need to learn about passenger lists in general and then emigration from Ireland in particular. It's complicated but it's important to understand so you don't .... screw up!!! As Paula pointed out, don't assume they left from Ireland. If you read about any article on Irish emigration or some good books that are about you will learn that more Irish people left from Liverpool than did from Ireland. Why? A very simple reason: More ships. However before you do that, you can get a bead on when they left by using the USA censuses. Each one asked slightly different questions (I'm thinking 1850 to 1930) but the later ones asked generally if you were naturalized (important: why look for naturalization papers for people who said in 4 censues they were not naturalized??), if so when, in some cases. You can narrow down your search, time wise. If you do a google for Passenger lists and also Irish genealogy and/or check our website at http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~merle, you'll start learning, free of charge. You can find plenty of ship lists. They are a VERY SMALL portion of all the ship lists. The collection that is most complete, on line, is ancestry.com. Buy yourself a membership for Christmas. If you want to maximize time, that's the way to go. If you don't find them there, consider that they are among the 1/3rd of Americans who came via Canada. No ship lists till very very late. No border crossings till very very late, about 1900, and you have to study the ones that we have to determine if they might help you. (Names are misleading). There are only a couple approaches to this research. The shotgun approach means spending lots of time searching on the INternet for your ancestors' names in a ship list. Sometimes works but when you are done you got no idea what you have checked. The catfish approach: giving up, you lurk on lists like this waiting for some relative to find him and post to the list you are on (before you die). This is like watching for a meteorite. You can miss that post by one day if you unsub or die. Very slow, but .... easy and high quality it's not. Catfish ain't picky about food but they got lots of patience. Your relative might make a mistake and post the wrong info, so it's best to know enough to evaluate info you get. esp when searching for common surnames like Hamilton. The third approach involves studying the methodology and proceding methodically. This means reading a slim book or so on American ship lists so you understand them and a little about Irish emigration. There are on line bookstores that sell these like www.genealogical.com and ww.ancestry.com "They Came In SHips" by COlletta is highly recommended (and skinny!) or if you can find in a library "The Source" it has a chapter. A too thick chapter probably for someone starting out. Then you can also go to LDS and order film as well as read their free guides. The guides can be got at www.familysearch.org . Their catalog is there too of what ship lists they got. For myself (I do this professionally now), I'd join ancestry.com. Their stated goal is to get ALL US ship lists on line. They got about half of all surviving ones. WHen they are done only 2/3rds of all who came after 1820 will be on line as 1/3rd took the ferry from Canada. Bummer!!!!!!! (WOW does that date me <grin>). Also if they came before 1820 there are no 'ship lists'. That's the name for the offical lists of everyone on board that the US gov passed a law requiring in 1820. Before that date we got some lists that the anal types don't want to call 'ship lists' as it is confusing (and we're already confused). However they are published in ab out 99% of the cases, and indexed. Most are indexed in Filby, who is also now on line at Ancestry.com. SOme arent' in him like the Germans. In colonial times the British law was that non-British subjects had to take an oath on leaving ship, so we got the names of the legal aliens. Not nice Brits like your ancestors and mine. Waw.... So subscribe to Ancestry and search there. Do your US census work there too. THen you will have an idea of when they came. If they manifested in Detroit, go have an Irish coffee with extra caffine and an additional shot: they came through Canada. After the third or forth maybe your ancestor will appear and TELL you when they came <grin>. You can also find a list of ship lists that survive (rats and fires got some) at www.rootsweb.com/~bifhsusa as well as methodologies for searching them, should you have to do that to find them. ALso check Ellis ISland. www.ellisisland.com (I think.... or google for ellis island). Even if they came earlier yuou might find them there for one of two reasons: Castle Garden records transfered there (found MINE that way!) or..... They went back and reentered. (Found MINE that way too!) Best of luck! Your probablem is that there are a zillion John Hamiltons who came over. Which one is yours? If you can get more clues it'll help. LIke the wife's maiden name (and it's something rare, not Smith or WIlson). Also check for obits for your ancestor -- he might have died near the end of the 1800s when obits were more common. It might name where he was born or provide some clue. His tombstone might identify the county of origin. For more clues to immigration research (figuring out where they came from) see www.genealogy.com/university.html --You can buy books on the topic, but these free courses are better than any books I've seen. I use them all the time. Useful charts for example. Linda Merle ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: VistaRon96@aol.com Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2005 23:21:56 EST >Greetings, Just discovered my G-G-Grandfather, John (William) HAMILTON, >emigrated from Northern Ireland. He was 15 years old. I do not know who is >parents were. His Father was Scotch, born ca 1800 and his Mother was Irish. He >married in Grant County, Wisconsin in 1858. Their children were: Mary, William, >James (my G-Grandfather), John, Letitia, and Harvey. > >ANY help would be greatly appreciated. > >Ron HABEL >Vista, CA, USA > > ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the WebMail system at mail.fea.net