However, North America is a land of great opportunity. Sometimes new immigrants, upon arriving at their destination, found that the very people they hoped to meet, and who would have provided them with shelter and perhaps even work, were not to be found. They had moved on. During the early nineteenth century, the communication network was not as developed as it became after the Civil War. Indeed, by the time of the Ellis Island passenger lists (1890s), immigrants had often had frequent contact with their "sponsor" in America. In earlier years, that was not always the case. What is an immigrant to do after arriving in a large city, such as Boston, and not knowing where to find that friend or relative? Many persons took out advertisements in the local newspaper, seeking their friends. These advertisements described the missing persons in some detail, often indicating the town in the old country where they came from. Advertisements for Friends Thus newspapers, a common genealogical source for vital events, such as deaths, may also become a source for information about immigrants and their origins. The growth of published abstracts of newspaper items also includes volumes abstracting advertisements for friends and relatives who disappeared into the growing population of America. The most significant collection is likely Ruth-Ann Harris and Donald M. Jacobs, (later B. Emer O'Keefe), editors, The Search for Missing Friends: Irish Immigrant Advertisements Placed in the Boston Pilot (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1989--1996) whose five volumes covering 1831-1865 list about 25,000 Irish persons once thought to reside in the Boston area. A smaller collection for Pennsylvania-Germans is Edward W. Hocker, Genealogical Data Relating to the German Settlers of Pennsylvania and Adjacent Territory (1935 rpt. Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1981), although not all of the references in this source pertain to immigrants.