Hi Ginny...I was extremely fortunate in being able to limit (??) my search based on the births of my GGP's first and second children...the first being born in Dundee in February, 1863 and the second in Albany, New York in May of 1865. This amounted to 22 rolls of film and, as I mentioned, I'm certain, no matter how I approach the task I'll find what I want (hopefully) in whatever is the final roll. One interesting point in this research....those dates include ships arriving at Castle Gardens (all this was prior to Ellis Island, which, as I'm sure we've all heard, is now computerized) from everywhere. This helps somewhat in that one can find on the first page of each of the entries the "from" and "to" of each vessel. There are (I was surprised) quite a few from South America, the southern Atlantic islands and even occasionally, Africa. However, one must be careful with other ships arriving from Europe unless you know definitely from where your ancestors departed. Many ships out of Bremerhaven (Germany) also stopped in Liverpool and occasionally even Ireland (can't remember the city) on their way to the states and picked up passengers there. Amazingly, (for the time period) the handwriting is generally quite legible. It's the condition of the pages (most are at least 150 years old!!) that make the reading so exasperating!! A good magnifying glass helps a great deal!! A suggestion....If you know the dates of arrival in the U.S. (and are pretty certain they're accurate!) back up the date a couple months (for date of departure) and start by ordering those inclusvie dates. I don't know if you've looked at the NARA list but dates are included on each roll. As I mentioned somewhere above in this book I'm writing (!!) I went strictly by inclusve dates and Castle Garden. If I don't find them on those rolls, then I'll have to start thinking of other ports of call and it could be anywhere on the east coast of U.S./Canada!! My reason for starting with N.Y. was their (apparently) immediate settling in Albany, N.Y. - so one of these days I'm going to find out Why Albany? Good luck and let me know how things progress with your search!! Barb in MO