Royal Navy/Royal Marines - Muster & Pay Books (Service Records) - Ratings & Officers (Military)

Records held on sailors or ratings detailing the ships they served on and payments made to them. The lists were taken regularly each month. The levels of recruitment fluctuated depending on the demand for personnel especially in times of conflict. Paybooks should also be looked at as they can provide information such as age and place of birth which might be missing from the muster. They might also contain an alphabetical surname index of the crew which can greatly assist finding an individual.

For the 18th century and much of the 19th century, ratings only signed up for a commission on a particular ship and was only employed for the duration of the commission. Therefore, naval rating's records are rarely indexed by name with no individual service records kept on a sailor. It is therefore imperative that the name of the ship is known to conduct research on a rating. After Continuous Service was introduced in 1853, centralised records were kept on individual ratings which established a professional structure to the Navy.

The following sources could be used to establish the name of the ship served on:
Seamen's Wills in series ADM 48; wills proved at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury which was used as the probate court for sailors who died abroad or at sea (see Royal Navy/Royal Marines - Casualty Records for more details)
Certificates of Service (see Royal Navy/Royal Marines - Certificates of Service - Ratings & Officers)
The Trafalgar Ancestors project aims to list all those who served in the Battle of Trafalgar and will provide amongst other things the name of the ship served on; parish marriage registers might record the name of the ship served on
Pension records especially ADM 73/1-35, Greenwich Hospital Pensioners' Admission Papers which are indexed by surname (see Royal Navy/Royal Marines - Pensions to the Wounded, Retired, Widows & Orphans - Ratings & Officers.

The name of the ship and an approximate date must be known to conduct a search. Look for the monthly and general musters. Pay books follow a similar structure to the musters. Much information was copied from one to another and are consequently difficult to use. As the records note the previous ships served on, it is possible to track a sailor's career backwards and forwards using the musters and pay books. Use the ship's captain's and master logs in ADM 51, ADM 52, ADM 53, ADM 54 to track the progress of a ship. Also look for description books from about 1800 which can be found with the ship's musters. These can provide the sailor's date of entry and discharge, marital status and occupation.

Royal Navy ex-servicemen suffering mental illness were treated at Hoxton House in London until 1818 and thereafter at the Royal Hospital Haslar near Gosport, Hampshire until 1854. The records can be found at The National Archives in series ADM 102/415-20 for Hoxton House and in series ADM 102/356-73 for Haslar.

See also
Certificates of Service - Ratings & Officers
Continuous Service Engagement Books, (Service Records) Ratings
Registers of Seamen's Services (Service Records), Ratings

The National Archives (ADM 36-39 & ADM 41, Ships' Musters; ADM 115, Ship Record and Establishment Books; ADM 117, Ships' Ledgers; ADM 119, Coastguard and Revenue Cruisers Ships' Musters; ADM 102, Hospital Ships' Musters; ADM 31-ADM 35, Ships' Pay Books)

The names of ships can be searched at the TNA Discovery catalogue to determine the availability of Musters and Pay Books and other material. First select advanced search from the Discovery home page and enter name of the vessel being searched without the prefix 'HMS'. In the ‘Search for or within references’ box type ADM and then scroll down to ‘Held by’ and click ‘Search The National Archives’. Finally click the search button. Further filters appear on the search results screen.
 
Fleet Air Arm Museum (The museum hold material relating to the Royal Naval Air Service and the Fleet Air Arm from official and private sources including service records, squadron line books, aircraft accident records, air stations, operations, ships and equipment. The museum also has custody of Royal Navy & Royal Marines Service Documents)
Royal Naval Museum (The museum houses a collection of naval related books, manuscripts and images, including the collections from the Admiralty Library formerly housed in London. The museum library offers a number of resources for those researching family histories with a number of Information Sheets available online including a guide to naval rankings. The Online Catalogue provides access to the Manuscript, Oral History, Photographic and WRNS collections)

1667 - 1878

Name, age at time of entry (after 1764), place of birth; Crew Number which was issued to the seaman for the time served on each ship and can be useful because crews are listed in numerical order; Date entered the ship and date first mustered; Details of previous ships served on and transfers; Details of hospital treatment; Discharge and date of death with the letter 'D' signifying Discharge which could include transfer to another ship, 'R' signifying Desertion (Run) and 'DD' Discharged Dead; Career and rank, either Landsmen abbreviated to 'LM', Ordinary Seaman abbreviated to 'ord' or 'ordy' and Able-Bodied Seaman abbreviated to 'ab' or 'AM' or 'able'.

www.barnettmaritime.co.uk (British Maritime History: Background to researching mariners: Mercantile & Naval)
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-subject/default.htm (TNA Guide: Looking for a subject, Military history)
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/default.htm (TNA Guide: Looking for a person, Navy)
www.royalnavalmuseum.org/info_sheets_nav_rankings.htm (Officer Ranks in the Royal Navy: The Naval Hierarchy Explained)
www.ukmfh.org.uk (UK Military Family History Online: Links to web sites with online data and information to aid in military family history research)
www.genuki.org.uk/big/MilitaryRecords.html (GENUKI Military guide with useful links)
www.rmg.co.uk/researchers/library/research-guides (National Maritime Museum: The Royal Navy: Guides to tracing people, ship records, administrative records, naval gunnery etc)
http://archive.iwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.3240 (Imperial War Museum, Your History, Family History: Royal Navy: Information sheets include Tracing Royal Navy Ancestry, Naval Service Records and List of Abbreviations)
http://globalgenealogy.com/globalgazette/gazfd/gazfd48.htm (British Military Records Part 2: The Royal Navy, by Fawne Stratford-Devai)
www.bl.uk/collection-guides/uk-national-government-publications (British Library Guide: Service lists for the Army, Navy and Air Force)
www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval.html (Naval enthusiast site that contains a number of indexes including extracts from the Navy Lists, ship's photos & other information)
www.naval-history.net (Information on battles, actions, medals, convoys, warships, merchant ships and ship losses, including photos of lost soldiers)
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nelson (Online exhibition to commemorate the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805)
www.navyrecords.org.uk (Navy Records Society: Publisher of original documents on the Royal Navy)
http://navaldockyards.moonfruit.com (Naval Dockyards Society)

www.findmypast.co.uk (British Royal Navy, Ships' Musters, 1739-1861. This collection of muster rolls is an excellent resource for genealogists to find seafaring ancestors in the Royal Navy before service records began in 1853. The records are from TNA series ADM 36, ADM 37, and ADM 38 series and do not include every muster from the series)
www.findmypast.co.uk (British Royal Naval Reserve 1899-1930. The dataset consists of over 81,000 service cards of officers and ratings who served with the RNR extracted from TNA series ADM 337 and ADM 240)
www.findmypast.co.uk (British Royal Navy & Royal Marines Service and Pension Records, 1704-1919. The dataset consists of an assortment of documents kept by the Greenwich Hospital and the Royal Hospital Chelsea to record the details of Greenwich Pensioners)
www.navylist.org (Naval Biographical Database: Biographical information on Royal Navy commission, warrant and yard officers extracted from a variety of sources, starting from 1660. The database also identifies volunteers who supported the Navy as well as a complete ship listing including places. Expect to find the person's name, rank, entry and discharge date, pension award, date of death and family members)
TNA Online Collections (Wills of Royal Naval Seamen: A collection of around 20,000 wills made by seamen of the Royal Navy 1786-1882. TNA Online Collections is produced by The National Archives and contains online access to indexes, transcriptions and digital images of some of the TNA's most important holdings. Searches are free but a fee is levied for each downloaded item. However downloads are free if used at TNA or the Society of Genealogists)
www.ancerstry.co.uk (UK, Naval Officer and Rating Service Records, 1802-1919. British officers and ratings [non-commissioned seamen] in the Royal Navy were awarded pensions after 20 years’ service. This collection includes records that documented that service, including musters and pay registers, which were compiled by the Navy Pay Office)
www.findmypast.co.uk (British Royal Navy Allotment Declarations, 1795-1852. Over 485,000 records held in TNA series ADM 27 showing details of seamen applications for allotments)
www.forces-war-records.co.uk (Forces War Records: Military records of over two million British Armed Forces personnel cross matched with over 4000 Regiments including Rolls of Honour, Crimean and Boer War Databases, Medal Rolls and Casualties Lists. The site also has a facility to access information on specific units or bases including regiments, ships, airfields)
www.navyrecordsonline.co.uk (Navy Records Online is an online archive of miscellaneous British naval records including charts, portraits, cartoons, logs, letters, diaries, battle plans, sketchbooks, photograph albums and videos)
www.genhound.co.uk (Dartmouth Royal Naval College Staff 1928 including officers, masters and staff)
www.findmypast.co.uk (Armed forces deaths 1796-1994 and GRO Naval war deaths WWI and WWII)
www.naval-history.net (Casualty Lists of the Royal And Dominion Navies 1889-2009, researched and compiled by Don Kindell)
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/trafalgarancestors (Trafalgar Ancestors: Names and details of those that served in the Battle of Trafalgar compiled by Bruno Pappalardo)
www.ageofnelson.org/NavyList/index.html (The Complete Navy List of the Napoleonic Wars, 1793-1815: Transcribed names and details of more than 11,000 commissioned officers who served in the Royal Navy from 1787 onwards, up to those who entered the service before 1817)
www.ageofnelson.org/TrafalgarRoll/index.html (The Ayshford Trafalgar Roll: Names and details of over 21,000 seamen and marines who fought at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805)
www.1812privateers.org/ADM26/ADM26.html (Transcripts of the ADM 26 registers which allowed ratings/sailors and not officers to remit part of their pay to a third party, usually a relative, 1795-1851)