On 12 Jun 2006 at 13:29, Beth Leney wrote: > > On his Declaration of Intent Papers he said he was: > > James Allen, an electrician, born 10-9-1883 in Plymouth > England He came over on June 4-5,1914 from England on the > Adriatic leaving from Liverpool He lived at 427 7th ave, > Brooklyn Ny > > This guy does not seem to exist in England or on any ships > record, I have looked everywhere. He is not on that boat nor > was he born on that date??? > Beth You have one very good piece of info there -- because an immigrant who arrived after June 29, 1906 could not naturalize until the government located their immigration record (a passenger list). Petitions (not the Declarations) after 1906 have information that has been verified and matched to an immigration record. In fact a a certification of the immigrant's arrival record was a required part of the process The easy way to remember is to think of opposites: BEFORE 1906, the Declaration has more useful genealogical info than the Petition (usually) and AFTER 1906 it's the opposite - the Petition is more useful and accurate than the Declaration So, the declaration you found might not be correct. I did a quick look of Ellis Island using Steve Morse's one steps at http://www.stevemorse.org -and there is NO ship named Adriatic entering NY from 1913-1915. So you need to find his petition as it seems he either arrived on a different ship, a different date OR via a port other than NY. For a Resource Guide to the records, what you can expect to find, where to find them, and alternate sources of finding those important years (immigration and naturalization) at http://naturalizationrecords.com/usa/ Read the intro then choose your state of interest. There are also many links to searchable online records at http://naturalizationrecords.com/ Since you are looking for POST 1906, you can also go directly to INS for a search (full details are found online at NaturalizationRecords.com) -- Lorine McGinnis Schulze * Olive Tree Genealogy (Ships Passenger Lists) http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ * Naturalization Records http://naturalizationrecords.com/ * Images of Ships Lists http://www.rootsweb.com/~ote/ships/ otg@csolve.net or olivetreegenealogy@gmail.com