Bash Can't see aliases file

[John Wheat]

  I have recently reinstall Ubuntu and saved my /home. Everything seems 
to work except my aliases. I have a ~/.bash_aliases and uncommented the 
line in ~/.bashrc that tells bash to use the aliases file except it 
tells me over and over the file doesn't exist. I have mv'd and renamed 
the left over from my last install and mv'd again to .bash_aliases but 
bash just refuses to see it. Any help on this appreciated.

  John Wheat