On 2 Jul 2006 at 16:27, Jim Cullen wrote: > Looking for the ship carrying William F. FERRIS and his wife > Ellen C. (nee unknown) to Philadelphia in the 1841 to 1843 > range. > > You're in luck, because PA ships lists have been kept, and are on microfilm, as far back as 1800 (it was not a requirement that they be kept until 1820) There are indexes you can use to search for the surname you are interested in For a complete list of film numbers for ships going to PA after 1820, see http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/filmnos_pa.shtml Find the film you need and write down the NARA or Family History Centre film number you need. Then you can order the film in to your nearest FHC or have NARA do the lookup for you. The staff of the National Archives will undertake a search of the original records for a fee If you want to try your luck ONline, there is a custom search engine that will search most Internet sites with ships going to PA. See http://www.rootsweb.com/~ote/usa_genealogy/ and choose PENNSYLVANIA from the state choices. Scroll down to the yellow search engine. I know this is the too late for you but others might be interested to know that the Philadelphia Baggage Lists for 1809 are online at http://www.rootsweb.com/~ote/ships/#paships They include images of the actual manifest and a transcription of the names of the passengers on board Lorine http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/tousa_pa.shtml Passenger Lists to PA http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/searchpaships.shtml Custom Search Engines Internet-wide for Ships to PA http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/filmnos_pa.shtml NARA & FHC film nos. from 1820 for immigration