Nature of Source
The ancient Corporation of Trinity House was responsible for the supervision of lighthouses and buoys around the England coast. It also distributed charitable funds to Merchant seamen and their families. The records relate to petitions for aid submitted by poor disabled seamen or their widows. Many petitions have been destroyed so the records are not complete.
Other similar sources include: Registers of almspeople and pensioners, 1729-1946 (indexed 1907-1939) and Registers of almspeople, 1845-1971 (indexed) held at Guildhall Library and applications for pensions to the 1st Duke of Wellington, Master of Trinity House, 1829-52 held at Southampton University Library.
See also
Merchant Navy – Apprenticeship Records
Merchant Navy – Certificates of Competency & Service
Merchant Navy – Crew Lists & Agreements
Merchant Navy – Death At Sea Indexes
Merchant Navy – Musters
Merchant Navy – Registers of Seamen/Service (Seamen)
Merchant Navy – Registered Ticket Records
Where Found
Society of Genealogists (Original petitions and indexes located in the Lower Library)
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 and Corporation of Trinity House records including Petition Indexes. 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)
National Maritime Museum
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)
Imperial War Museum (Collections include photos, art, souvenirs, ephemera, recordings and newspapers, journals and books)
Period Covered
1787 – 1854
Genealogical Value
- Name of seaman, position on board and name of vessels served on and year.
- Route of vessels served on.
- Year and age seaman began service.
- Nature of seaman’s injury or cause of death.
- Names and ages of dependants, and baptismal and marriage certificates.
- Name of wife or widow.
- The year of the petition.
- Name, address and age of petitioner.
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.trinityhouse.co.uk/about-us/history-of-trinity-house (Corporation of Trinity House: History of Trinity House including a genealogy guide to the corporation records)
https://search.lma.gov.uk/research-guides (London Metropolitan Archives Research Guide: Records of the Corporation of Trinity House)
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.findmypast.co.uk (British Mariners, Trinity House Calendars, 1787-1854 produced in association with the Society of Genealogists. These records contain the details of British Mariners who petitioned for aid from the Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strond. The Society has partnered with findmypast.co.uk to publish online record sets from its unique collection. For more information on the available records see here. Members of the Society will be able to view these records for free at SoG Data Online via their existing membership)
www.sog.org.uk/search-records (SoG Data Online: Trinity House Petitions, Apprenticeship Indentures and Miscellaneous Papers. Members of the Society of Genealogists are able to view these records for free via their existing membership. Non-members can carry out free surname searches but will need to join the society to view the full record details)
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)
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.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)
www.ideastore.co.uk/local-history-archives-online (Tower Hamlets Archives Collection. Search digitised items from the Collection including the Gifts to Seaman’s Widows, 1860. Applications for gifts to seamen’s widows, St. George-in-the-East)
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)
