1. What is the Morton Allan Directory?

The Morton Allan Ship Directory lists all European passenger steamship arrivals for the years 1890 to 1930 at the Port of New York and 1904 to 1926 at the ports of Philadelphia, Boston and Baltimore.
 

2. Is the Morton Allan list the same as the list of ships that arrived at Ellis Island?

No, the Morton Allan Directory does not list ships that came from non-European ports to Ellis Island.  It also list ships that went to US ports other than New York.
 

3. What does it mean when I get the message ADODB.Recordset error '800a0bcd' ?

Unfortunately that is the message that the search engine gives when it is not able to find any results matching your search criteria.  Just interpret that message as "No matching records found."
 

-- Steve Morse