Genealogy Chat

Sorry for the delay in replying. My computer is playing up, for a few minutes I thought it had been fixed but it's still playing up. I may need a new one :( I've managed to get on the internet for a few minutes tonight on a family member's machine.

Thank you so much for all your help. I have put this in my bookmarks and will look at this when I can get access to my family tree and the internet.

A few notes from a guide I am putting together on Merchant Navy Records.

The best on- line source of information is from the National Archives website. The best book is “My Ancestor was a Merchant Seaman” by Christopher and Michael Watts. The records are also covered in less detail in the book “The National Archives” by Stella Colwell. This does however cover all the other records held at Kew.

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Not the easiest site to use but look for the Research Guides. There are several guides covering both merchant seamen and crew lists etc.
Other useful sites are:

www.miramarshipindex.org.nz A useful site for finding official numbers.
www.mun.ca/mha The maritime archive at Newfoundland.
www.shipslist.com Holds information about ships.
www.nmm.ac.uk The Maritime Museum at Greenwich.
www.findmypast.com Now holds the crew lists from the CLIP project.
www.welshmariners.org.uk Useful for Welsh masters, mates and engineers.
www.ellisisland.org Holds records of sailors passing through USA.

Merchant Seamen Records

There are many different records held at Kew. The Watts book takes 30 pages to describe them. From 1835 to 1858 and from 1912 onwards there were systems of central registration. In the middle period, known as the gap, there are none. They are all on microfilm or fiche at Kew. The original cards can be found at the Southampton Archive.
If the seaman was a mate, master or engineer then records were kept during the gap years. These are also on microfilm. The actual certificates awarded are kept by the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich and can be requested by quoting the certificate number found at Kew.

Crew Lists
These are kept all over the place. The Watts book has 15 pages of detail. From 1835 to 1856 they are at Kew, filed by the initial letter of the ships name and by Port of Registration by year. Hence BT 98/2436 is a large cardboard box of ships crew lists starting with an S from Caernarvon for 1851.
From 1857 to 1860 they are still at Kew but the ships now have Official Numbers. These can be searched on-line via the Catalogue.
From 1861 they can be at the MHA at Newfoundland, which is the best place to start looking as they hold the most records. The Official Number of the ship is required to search their records on-line. The MHA carry out research, e.g. tracing a seaman back through many voyages. Their fees are $40 Canadian an hour plus a little extra for scanning the records and emailing the results. They are very efficient and very helpful.
If they are not at the MHA then they may be at Kew. Search the Catalogue with the Official Number to find whether they are there. It is also possible to get digital copies of the records at a cost, about £10, but they are not completed as well as they are by the Canadians. Kew is also easier to get to than Newfoundland.
The records may be at Greenwich, held by the Maritime Museum. Particularly for years ending in 5, e.g. 1915, 1925 etc. The service from Greenwich is poor. You can get copies but are photocopies on A3 paper or CD. These are worth giving a miss unless essential to get a particular record.
Lastly they may be at local record offices. These appear to be the ones covered by the CLIP project and are now available from FindmyPast. I expect that they are also viewable at the record offices themselves.

Ships Logs
These are sometimes kept with the crew lists, often if something particular happened. They are not like Royal Navy logs and there only entries for the odd event, e.g. disciplinary action, fires, fights between crew members, deaths on board, accidents and injuries. Logs have been retained for WW1 voyages in BT 165 at Kew. They are retained in boxes by Official Number, and it is best to search with a wildcard* for the last two numbers.

Deaths at Sea
There are separate GRO records for those lost at sea or abroad. Records were kept of all deaths at sea and these are indexed by name or by ship, most in the BT 334 series of original documents at Kew.

Ellis Island
The data held on this site includes mariners as well as passengers and those emigrating to the US. It can be useful to find a ship or voyage. The system does not allow printing from the images, presumably to increase their revenue.

Lloyds Captains Registers
There are registers of captains who were active between 1869 and 1947. These were held at the Guildhall Library and are now available at the London Metropolitan Archives. Most are available on microfilm and can provide a complete history of service as a master.

Here we go.


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It's free! Cx.

Not forgetting snorkel and flippers!

Why not try the Merseyside Genealogy and History forum website? It's members have been really helpful to me in the past. Cx. ps. I'll go find the link!!

lol Ann, and take your travel sickness pills in my case :)

make sure you wear a lifebelt!!!

Thanks Jill :) The problem with my family is that I don't think all of them were in the Navy. Unfortunately the ones that were died in WW1. I've a few merchant seamen as well. Thanks for the suggestion about the website, I'll look into that.

I don't know why but your post reminded me that I've an ancestor who is a custom's officer. I'll have to try and find out more about his occupation too.

The National Archives have a Royal Navy section and depending on years you can find and download copies of their records - £3.50 a pop.

There is also a website for coastguards as a lot of retired RN men seemed to become coastguards. I googled it once and it came fairly close to the top of the list.

Jill

Ooh hello :)

Sorry I took so long to reply, I meant to come back to this one and post more but got distracted and forgot. I've a horrible habit of forgetting threads I've posted.

Thank you Cynthia and Christine. I've got a few seamen in my family from England and Scotland from various times. Some are listed as mariners, some as seaman and some as fishermen.

I suppose the one that I'm currently most curious about was first listed as a mariner about 1865. He was from Liverpool. He is mainly listed as a mariner but was listed as a boat Captain at the turn of the last century (perhaps a tug boat). He used to return from sea with a huge trunk. However, I don't know any more and was wondering whether anyone had any tips.

Many thanks :)

? Cx.

My brother researched our g.g.grandfather some years ago, at Kew. GGG was in the Royal Navy and he was able, then, to see the original ship's muster books, following him from ship to ship. Some of the muster books gave a physical description, as well as details of his pay and deductions (" 2 pence for slop cloths"!)

If you can get to Kew and they still allow you to see them, it would be well worth while.

Hi SRS. What timescale are you looking at? Battle of Waterloo?? WW1, WW2 or simply men who were sailors? I suppose it depends on how much you know about him/them too. Names of ships , Merchant Navy, Royal Navy etc.


OH had a gt.grandfather who was at sea in the 1880's and I got a lot of help from various local shipping lines and folk on here. I eventually got his death certifcate - 'presumed drowned Dec.1881' . Too much Christmas merriment methinks!!


National Archives? Rootschat is quite good at this sort of thing too!


Not much help........but! Cx.

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