Hey Jerry,
I'm so glad you found our message board. I hope that it may soon become a useful tool for those of use trying to trace our roots.
The Ellis Island site has great value, but IS really frustrating. I was lucky enough to have a great-aunt who published a book on the Armenian Ellis Island exhibit and had included the name of the ship some of my family members came over on. That helped out a lot.
Please keep checking this site, hopefully more people will find us and use this forum.