If you are interested in obtaining information on what ship your people came on to the port of NY, you may want to check the Helpful Hints page I am in the process of developing which can be reached thru the IGW home page (url below nametag). What can ship passenger lists tell you? Who came and when. Their age and occupation. After about 1896 they tell you a LOT, where they were going to and their address, exactlly where they came from (town and county ) how much money they had with them. Before forms were standardized the ship companies only had to list name, age, occupation and country of origin, however I have seen about 2/3 of the time on the "Irish" ships that they wrote in the county of origin in a blank column. Plus, it is really moving to see the manifest with your ancestors name on it, and to have a copy in your book. A step by step guide for searching films yourself is on that page. I broke it down into easy steps so its not too intimidating. I will be doing other ports soon (when I have some time). Also the link to History of Castle Garden/Ellis Island is done, and the email addresses of NARA branches. If you have not gotten naturalization papers for your people (men only before 1923) that is a good way to try and pin point a year of arrival. Within the next two weeks I will have my own copy of the Famine Immigrants book and will be able to do lookups in it. I am currently searching 1885 arrivals to get a bit of needed info on my great grandmother Mary Ellen Gough from Clonmel Tipperary to Brooklyn...... and it really can be done. Maura ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Maura Petzolt Mobile, Alabama USA mpetzolt2@webtv.net =============================== visit the IrelandGenWeb home page at http://www.worldgenweb.org/ireland/index.html