I have to thank Gay for posting the following obit which is a great example of looking for your ancestor in unusual places: Washington State, USA The Northern Star, Snohomish City, Washington Territory - 13 Jan 1877 Died, in this town on Monday morning last of consumption, Thomas McManus, a native of Tipperary, Ireland, aged 57 years. “Old Tom” as he was familiarly called, first came to this coast in a whaler in 1836, He returned to New York in 1838, where he joined Wilke’s Exploring Expedition in which he arrived on Puget Sound in 1840. He has, until within a few years been constantly in Government service, in naval vessels and revenue cutters. But poor Tom has come to his final anchorage at last, and his soul has gone aloft. – Portland Townsend Argus Here we have a lad of only about 16, and from a county in Ireland that is nowhere near the ocean, arriving on the west coast of the US by 1836. He has probably left a short trail in NY and the lad has probably been in Newfoundland and many other places along the east and west coasts of the US and Canada, and he finally settled in a Washington port town. I wish we had more information of the Irish mariners because they really got around the world. I found one with my favorite surname dying in Maine in the late 1600's in a Probate record. We often forget to look for the records [few] of the fishermen when we are searching for how our ancestors arrived where they did. Looking at any records in port towns might give clues. Janet