Nature of Source
Registers and records of merchant seamen who died on board a British vessel. The civil registration Act of 1837 required the ship’s master to record births (with at least one English parent), marriages and deaths at sea. Details of the event were sent to the Registrar General at the General Register Office and entered into the Marine Register now held at The National Archives (TNA) and other repositories (see Civil Registration for details). Births are covered up to 1930 and deaths up to 1965. The registration process only applied to the English thus excluding the Welsh, Scots and Irish.
The Births and Deaths Registration Act of 1874 required ship’s masters and captains of merchant vessels to report births and deaths at sea to the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen (RGSS) who then passed on the information to the relevant Registrar for England Scotland or Ireland.
From 1854 separate registers of birth, marriages and deaths at sea were compiled by the RGSS from information supplied by the ship’s master and entered in to the ship’s log books. These registers were not handed to the Registrar General and are held at TNA in series BT 158 and cover marriages to 1883, births to 1887 and deaths to 1890. In addition the RGSS also kept their own registers and include deaths up to 1888 held at TNA in BT 159 and births up to 1891 in BT 160. The above registers are available online from BMD Registers (see below for more details). Other registers with indexes of births marriage and deaths of seamen (and passengers) covering 1891-1972 are in BT 334.
Merchant Seaman records sometimes identify a vessel an individual served on only by the Ships’ Official Number. The Crew List Index Project (CLIP) offers a searchable index of ships by official number. The database includes every British registered ship from 1855 to the early 1950s with official numbers 1 to 200000. In addition CLIP offers a searchable index of ships by name. It shows matching names and their official number, sorted first by name, then by official number. The site also provides a search of Ships by port showing ships registered at each port.
See also
Civil Registration – Birth, Marriages & Deaths At Sea
Consular Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths Overseas
Merchant Navy – Apprenticeship Records
Merchant Navy – Certificates of Competency & Service
Merchant Navy – Crew Lists & Agreements
Merchant Navy – Musters
Merchant Navy – Registers of Seamen/Service (Seamen)
Merchant Navy – Registered Ticket Records
Merchant Navy – Trinity House Petitions
Where Found
The National Archives (BT 153, Registers of Wages and Effects of Deceased Seamen, 1852-1889 [April 1881-May 1888 have not survived]; BT 154, and BT 155 Indexes to Seamen’s Names from BT 153; BT 156, Monthly Lists of Deaths of Seamen, 1886-1890; BT 157, Registers of Seamen’s Deaths, Classified by Cause, 1882-1888. See below for details of online access to these records)
Registry of Shipping and Seamen (Previously called the General Register and Record Office of Shipping and Seamen. Their records originate from 1927 with most now deposited at The National Archives. They do hold Log Books and Crew Agreements from 1996 onwards and the Registers of Births and Deaths at Sea 1965 to present day. For a guide to the Registry of Shipping and Seamen see the Lloyd’s Register Foundation Information sheet)
Merseyside Maritime Museum (Maritime Archives and Library: The library holds registers of merchant ships and records of the major shipping companies operating from Liverpool; records of the port of Liverpool, local trade associations, shipping companies, merchant houses, port services, charities and ship builders; plans, photographs and oral tapes. A series of detailed information sheets dealing with the maritime research are available at the web site)
Guildhall Library (The library holds the Lloyd’s Marine Collection, including the historical printed and manuscript records formerly held by the library at Lloyd’s of London. The collection offers the maritime and family historian information on ships’ details, shipping movements and shipping news and casualties from 1741 to the present. They also hold the Newall Dunn Collection, an important photographic and reference resource on merchant shipping from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century. Details of the holdings can be found on the Library Catalogue)
Imperial War Museum (Collections include photos, art, souvenirs, ephemera, recordings and newspapers, journals and books)
Period Covered
1837 – Onwards
Genealogical Value
- Name of deceased and from 1875 the deceased’s age.
- Date, place and cause of death.
- The seaman’s last place of residence and his birth place if known.
- The name of the vessel died on.
Further References
- Bevan, Amanda. Tracing Your Ancestors in the National Archives: The National Archives, 2006
- Fenton, Roy & Briody, Nuala & Macdonald, Mike. Maritime Information, A guide to libraries and sources of information in the United Kingdom: MIA, 2004
- Hailey, John. Maritime Sources in the Library of the Society of Genealogists: Society of Genealogists, 1997
- Spencer, William, Family History in the Wars: The National Archives, 2007
- Smyth, W. H. The Sailor’s Wordbook: The Classic Source for Over 14,000 Nautical and Naval Terms: Conway Maritime Press, 2005
- Tracing Your Family History: Merchant Seamen: Imperial War Museum, 2006
- Tracing Your Family History, Merchant Navy, Imperial War Museum, 2006
- Watts, Christopher & Watts, Michael & Smith, Kelvin. Records of Merchant Shipping & Seamen, PRO Publications, 1998
- Watts, Christopher & Watts, Michael. My Ancestor Was a Merchant Seaman: Society of Genealogists, 2011
- Watts, Christopher & Watts, Michael, Tracing Births, Deaths and Marriages at Sea: Society of Genealogists, 2004
- Wills, Simon. Tracing Your Merchant Navy Ancestors: Pen & Sword Books, 2012
- Wills, Simon. Tracing Your Seafaring Ancestors: A Guide to Maritime Photographs for Family Historians: Pen and Sword Books, 2016
- Woodman, Richard. The Merchant Navy: Shire Publications, 2013
Websites
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research (The National Archives Research Guides: Numerous guides are available covering all aspects of the Merchant Navy including finding crew lists, Merchant Seamen Registers and looking for Merchant Navy ships)
www.iwm.org.uk/research/tracing-your-family-history/tracing-your-merchant-navy-family-history (Imperial War Museum: Merchant Navy Family History: Guides include: Where to find Merchant Navy Records; Casualty Records; Medal Records; Other sources)
https://museum.wales/curatorial/industry/resources/maritime-history (National Museum Wales: Researching Welsh maritime history)
www.rmg.co.uk/collections/research-guides (National Maritime Museum Research Guides: Tracing family history from maritime records; The Merchant Navy: World War Two; The Merchant Navy: Tracing merchant seamen; he Merchant Navy: Tracing people: Crew lists, agreements and official logs; The Merchant Navy: Tracing people: Master-mariners, mates and engineers; The Merchant Navy: Sources for enquiries; The Merchant Navy: Sources for ship histories; The Merchant Navy: First World War)
https://hec.lrfoundation.org.uk/archive-library/information-sheets (Lloyd’s Register Foundation: Information sheets: Guides include: Registry of Shipping and Seamen; Useful sources for genealogists; Sources available to historical researchers; Collections of the Lloyd’s Register of Ships and associated publications in UK and Ireland)
https://hec.lrfoundation.org.uk/archive-library/lloyds-register-of-ships-online/lloyds-register-of-ships-online (Lloyd’s Register Foundation: Lloyd’s Register of Ships online: How to access the historical Lloyd’s Register of Ships. Links to volumes of the Lloyd’s Register of Ships which are fully accessible and searchable online. Resources include the 1764 Register Book)
www.mun.ca/mha/research/principalrecords.php (Maritime History Archive. List of the principal records of British shipping and seamen, showing their present locations)
www.marinelives.org/wiki/MarineLives (MarineLives project. The MarineLives collaborative public history project was established in 2012 to digitise, transcribe and annotate the manuscript records of the English High Court of Admiralty from the 1620s and 1670s. The original records are held at The National Archives in Kew)
www.mariners-l.co.uk (Mariners: Researching the mariners and ships of the merchant marine and the world’s navies and home of the Mariners Mailing List with numerous guides and resources for researching a merchant mariner)
www.mariners-list.com (MARINERS: Researching your Mariner Ancestors and the Vessels they Sailed on. The site provides tools and information to help you find your Mariner Ancestor) (Mariners: The Website of the Mariners Mailing List. Researching the mariners and ships of the Merchant Marine)
www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/archive/listGuides.aspx (Merseyside Maritime Museum: Tracing Seafaring Ancestors in the Merchant Navy)
www.merchant-navy.net/forum/forum.php (Forum Thread: Complete Guide to Researching Merchant Navy Records)
www.crewlist.org.uk (Crew List Index Project: Volunteer project transcribing records held at County Record Offices. Site includes guides to finding and using crew lists. The index is available online at www.findmypast.co.uk)
www.glamorganfamilyhistory.co.uk/maritime/Site.html (Bob Sanders Family History Pages. Tracing British Seamen & their ships)
www.glamorganfamilyhistory.co.uk/maritime/CREW.html (Bob Sanders Family History Pages. Tracing British Crew Lists & Agreements)
www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/archive/pdf/Naval%20History-Tracing%20Seafaring%20Ancestors%20in%20the%20Merchant%20Navy%20no43.pdf (National Museums Liverpool: Tracing Seafaring Ancestors in The Merchant Navy)
www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/history-and-heritage/guildhall-library/guildhall-library-collections/maritime-collections (Guildhall Library. Maritime Collections. Brief guide to Merchant Navy material held at Guildhall Library. The Library holds the Lloyd’s Marine Collection, including the historical printed and manuscript records formerly held by the library at Lloyd’s of London with maritime and family historian information on ships’ details, shipping movements and shipping news and casualties from 1741 to the present)
P&O Heritage
The site highlights the history and the collections and archives of the P&O shipping line as well as the companies acquired by the group over the years. The site hosts a number of Family History Research Guides and an online collections catalogue of nearly 2,400 P&O ships and 1,800 object records.
P&O Heritage
Researching births, marriages and deaths at sea. This is a guide to researching both national records and P&O records for births, marriages and deaths at sea.
www.parishchest.com (Online store selling Merchant Navy records from a variety of suppliers)
Online Databases
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/merchant-seamens-campaign-medal-records-1939-1945 (The National Archives: Search a database of World War II Medals issued to Merchant Seamen extracted from BT 395. The series lists the medals awarded to merchant seamen for their service in the Second World War with the exception of the Arctic Star)
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/merchant-seamens-campaign-medal-records-1914-1918 (The National Archives: Search British War Medal and the Mercantile Marine Medal records consisting of over 155,000 index cards taken from catalogue references BT 351/1 and, for the Silver War Badge, a list of recipients)
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/merchant-shipping-movement-cards-1939-1945 (The National Archives: Search digitised cards recording the movements of British and Allied merchant ships during the Second World War. The records provide the name of the ship, size tonnage of ship, to whom ship was registered, ship’s destination, date of arrival at destination, sometimes ports of call and any cargo carried on board)
www.findmypast.co.uk (British Armed Forces and Overseas Births and Baptisms. Search birth records of children born to those working within the armed forces, merchant navy, and consular forces, as well as, civilian ship passengers. The original records are held by the General Register Office and The National Archives)
www.findmypast.co.uk (British Armed Forces and Overseas Deaths and Burials. Search records of British armed forces members who died serving their country overseas, British civilians who died while travelling or working overseas, and individuals, including seamen, who died at sea. The collection has been compiled from records held by the General Register Office and The National Archives)
https://bmdregisters.co.uk (BMD Registers. Search registers compiled from ships’ official logs of births, deaths and marriages of passengers at sea by the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen and its predecessor. There are separate volumes for England, Scotland and Ireland corresponding to the GRO to whom the details were to be reported. The original data is from series BT 158, BT 159 and BT 160 held at The National Archives)
https://search.lma.gov.uk/SCRIPTS/MWIMAIN.DLL?GET&FILE=%5BWWW_LMA%5Dindexes.htm (London Metropolitan Archives: Indexes to Lloyd’s Captains Registers. These indexes cover the years 1851 to 1911)
www.findmypast.co.uk (England & Wales Merchant Navy Crew Lists 1861-1913. Search crew lists and agreements from various local archives and county record offices across England and Wales including The National Archives and the National Maritime Museum. Over 157,000 of the 570,000 records in this set include images of original documents. Part of these records are created from the Crew List Index Project, a volunteer led project indexing individual crewmen from original documents held in various repositories in the UK as well as in Canada)
www.welshmariners.org.uk (Welsh Mariners: Online index of 23,500 Welsh merchant masters, mates and engineers covering 1800-1945, compiled by Dr. Reg Davies. The sister site at www.irishmariners.ie has records of Irish merchant seamen)
www.glamorganfamilyhistory.co.uk/maritime/CREWIN.html (Bob Sanders Family History Pages. Cardiff Crew Agreements, transcribed records of master mariners named in the crew agreements)
https://memorials.rmg.co.uk (National Maritime Museum: Maritime Memorials: The memorial database contains records of over 6000 church, cemetery and public memorials to seafarers and victims of maritime disasters, including many important works by prominent sculptors and designers)
https://info.dumgal.gov.uk/HistoricalIndexes/Home/IndexDescription/8 (Dumfries and Galloway Council. The Shipping Registers for Dumfries 1824-1904, Kirkcudbright 1824-1841, Stranraer 1824-1908 and Wigtown 1836-1908)
CD Roms
S & N Genealogy Supplies (Crew Lists and Agreements 1863-1913)
The Maritime History Archive (Ships and Seafarers of Atlantic Canada. Searchable CD containing data on the vessels, captains and crews of Great Britain and Atlantic Canada, 1787-1936)
London Cornish Association (Cornish Masters & Mates Project. Cornish-born Merchant Navy Officers extracted from TNA BT 127)
