This is a brief guide to researching records of merchant seamenseafarers on merchant vessels - ships that transport cargo or passengers serving between 1858 and 1917. It is very difficult to find information about a particular merchant seaman between those dates. This is because registration of seamen stopped between 1857 and 1913, and the entries for 1913 to 1917 have not survived. If you know the name of the ship you might be able to find the person on a crew listlist of crew members filed by ship's master with the Registrar General of Shipping.
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What do I need to know before I start?
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Try to find out:
- the name of the ship on which the seaman served
- the port where it was registered
- the ship's official number (obtainable from the Crew List Index Project)
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What records can I see online?
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Index of First World War Mercantile Marine Medals and British War Medal (1914-1925)
Search and download cards recording the award of campaign medals to merchant seamen in the First World War (BT 351/1/1, BT 351/1/2 and MT 9/1404) (£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.). These cards record the award of the British War Medal, Mercantile Marine Medal and Silver War Badge.
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What records can I find at The National Archives at Kew?
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Agreements and crew lists (1861-1994)
Search the agreements and crew listswritten agreements regarding conditions of service and crew lists filed by ships' masters with the Registrar General of Shipping in BT 99 by the ship's official number for the period 1861 to 1934.
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Indexes of apprentices registered in the merchant navy (1824-1953)
Browse the indexes of apprentices registered in the merchant navy in BT 150.
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To access these records you will either need to visit us, commission research (£there will be a charge) or, where you can identify a specific record referencea unique set of letters and numbers identifying a document in The National Archives, order a copy (£there will be a charge).
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What records can I find in other archives and organisations?
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Agreements and crew lists (1861-1994)
Look at the websites of other archives and organisations which hold agreements and crew listswritten agreements regarding conditions of service and crew lists filed by ships' masters with the Registrar General of Shipping, including the Maritime History Archive in Newfoundland, the National Maritime Museum, the National Archives of Scotland and Ireland, and local archives.
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What other resources will help me find information?
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Websites
Consult the Crew List Index Project (CLIP) website, which has information about merchant seamenseafarers on merchant vessels - ships that transport cargo or passengers on British registered ships from 1861 to 1913.
Search indexes to crew lists from 1861 to 1913 by name on findmypast (£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.).
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Books
Read My Ancestor was a Merchant Seaman by Christopher and Michael Watts (Society of Genealogists, 2002).
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Merchant seamen serving up to 1857
Merchant seamen serving after 1917
Officers in the Merchant Navy