Nature of Source
Records detailing the ship’s crew, the ships they served on and the voyages undertaken. The musters are arranged by year and by the port the vessel was attached to. Unfortunately the records are not arranged with any form of name or ship index.
Unfortunately, the musters often only name the master and the number of crew on board, but on occasions include a full crew list. Before 1747 no formal record keeping of crews on merchant ships existed.
Merchant Navy mariners were recorded in the 1841 census but unfortunately not those on board ships either stationed on shore or at sea. They were first recorded on board vessels in port from 1851 (1861 for Scotland) and from 1861 measures were taken to record mariners at sea. However the coverage, especially for the earlier censuses, is patchy with many not appearing in the schedules. For more detailed information on the census and Merchant Navy see here and here.
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.
To trace the voyages and obtain detailed information on a particular vessel including the owner as well as the captain’s name and career, consult the Lloyd’s Register of Shipping. The register included ships from the British empire and later from around the world. Editions of the register are available at the National Maritime Museum as well as other repositories such as the Lloyd’s Register Foundation and the Guildhall Library who holds the Register from 1764 to the present. The Foundation offers a resource showing links to digitised volumes of the Lloyd’s Register of Ships which are fully accessible and searchable online. Many editions covering the 18th and 19th centuries are available to view online at Google Books and the Internet Archive which also offers the facility to conduct a text search for the names of vessels and captains. The Maritime and Historical Research Service has compiled a list of available volumes scanned by Google Books and Southampton Library & Archive.
Where Found
The National Archives (BT 98, Registry of Shipping and Seamen: Surviving muster rolls from 1747)
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
1747 – 1851
Genealogical Value
- Name, age, place of birth, rank and ticket number.
- Previous and current ships with ports of registration.
- Dates and places of joining and leaving and reason for leaving.
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)
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)
www.poheritage.com (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 database of nearly 2,500 P&O ships)
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)
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)
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.findmypast.co.uk (Merchant Navy Seamen 1835-1941: The records comprise two main sections: Firstly, Merchant Navy Seamen 1835-1857 which consists of records of individual seamen that the central government created to monitor a potential reserve of sailors for the Royal Navy and secondly, Merchant Navy Seamen 1918-1941 which consist of records of index cards that the Registrar General of Shipping and Seaman used between the two world wars to produce a centralised index to merchant seamen serving on British merchant navy vessels. The datasets consists of registers from Series I, Series II, Series III but not Series IV which will remain unpublished)
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)
