hi PH,
thanks for all the info but i dont think this is my alexander. mine definetly came over in 1908,got his record from ellis island and he was single, also his dob is 28th april 1884 and he was born in macduff banffshire and his parents were alexander and mary.
i also couldn,t find any record of a helen shaw spence going to US in 1910, but i did find a helen s chasser going that year with her widowed mother and she was the right age. so unless there were 2 alexander nicol,s with wives called helen and sons with the same names i think i might have to continue my search, i really thought i had found him because the dates and age on the 1930 cen matched him. he is the last one on my paternal branch that i am looking for nobody in the family seems to know what happened to him

once again thank you
christine