I was looking for a port of entry for a particular family from England, and based on newspaper articles and various other records, I thought for sure it would have been New York.  After a fairly extensive search of New York, I went back to the drawing board to reevaluate my research.  I decided to create a time line with all the children birth dates.  I found one son whose birth place was recorded differently on three documents.

So I checked They Came in Ships by John Colletta to see what port of entry records are available for Boston.  I found out that the original lists (for my time period) were destroyed by fire and State Department copies were used instead.  Okay…, so I searched these records, and still did not find the family.

John Colletta’s book also has great solution ideas for when you cannot find your family in the indexes.  My next search will include the names of people who I believe traveled with the family.  Hopefully, I will find the family I am looking for in the near future.