Hello, I'm new to the US boards. A few questions to get me started.
1. Can we search by State/county as we do on the UK boards
2. Is there a national BMD archive like the UK GRO.
Using the US 1870 and 1880 census I found a friends grandmother Frederica Barrett born 1863 Phillidelphia, daughter of Lawrence Barrett born PA about 1836 of Irish parents, he was a sea captain, a clipper called the Mariquitta. His wife Frederica Barrett was born Ireland. The marriage details would help us know more. Five daughters Margaret, Frederica, Ellen, Annie, and Leonora, and as is often the case the 4 younger girls were known to each other as Freddy, Nell, Nan, and Nora.
There is a story that one of the parents, probably Lawrence, was quite closely related to the USA's president who had the shortest term in office William Harrison.
Frederica worked in New York for a publication "Book News" She lived alone and was probably involved in Womens rights. She came to the UK in the 1890's aged about 32 and either married or was let down by an Englishman. But she managed to find a friend of her fathers, another sea faring man who made trips to the US. He was a widower with young children, they married, had more children, and now I'm helping her grand-daughter to add some facts to the story she knows. Cheers Fred