Tag: Merchant Navy ancestors

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New Seafaring Records from TheGenealogist

Disclosure: Please note this post contains affiliate links.*

NEWS: Press Release from TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist has just released a range of records that will appeal to many British family historians with seafaring roots. As an island nation, we have seen countless ancestors go to sea, especially in the two World Wars. Whether our forebears served in merchant vessels or in warships, this latest release has records of interest for those with both types of sailors in their family trees.

TheGenealogist releases Royal Navy and Merchant Navy records

Researchers can use these records to reveal names, dates and information about ancestors who were recorded in a number of Navy Lists for the Royal Navy (RN) that cover both WW1 and WW2. Family historians looking for Merchant Navy (MN) mariners killed or who died on service in WW1 will also find something in this release for them, as well as gaining access to names for merchant seamen honoured with medals and awards between 1914-1918. 

For those who have lost seafarers, whether in either the Royal Navy or the Merchant Navy, then this collection of records is a useful addition. Family history researchers will be able to look for ships that were sunk. The new resources include Merchant Shipping Losses 1914-1918, and the British Merchant Vessels Lost or Damaged by Enemy Action During the Second World War 1939-1945. For the Senior Service’s vessels, the Returns Showing the Losses of Ships of the Royal Navy 1914-1918 will give details of the ship and where it was sunk.

Fully searchable by name or keyword from TheGenealogist’s Master Search. The new additions include records from a variety of sources, including:

      • The Navy List 1914
      • The Navy List January 1916
      • The Navy List April 1918
      • The Navy List August 1937
      • The Navy List October 1937
      • The Navy List July 1943
      • The Navy List April 1945
      • Return Showing the Losses of Ships of the Royal Navy 1914-1918
      • Merchant Adventurers 1914-1918
      • Merchant Shipping Losses 1914-1918
      • British Merchant Vessels Lost or Damaged by Enemy Action During Second World War 1939-1945

To learn more about how this collection of records helped in the research of a mariner whose daring deeds earned him a VC read the article that I wrote for TheGenealogist: Under the “Red Duster” and the White Ensign.

https://thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/under-the-red-duster-and-the-white-ensign-2246/ 

 

About TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, who put a wealth of information at the fingertips of family historians. Their approach is to bring hard to use physical records to life online with easy to use interfaces such as their Tithe and newly released Lloyd George Domesday collections. 

TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch technology links records together to help you find your ancestors more easily. TheGenealogist is one of the leading providers of online family history records. Along with the standard Birth, Marriage, Death and Census records, they also have significant collections of Parish and Nonconformist records, PCC Will Records, Irish Records, Military records, Occupations, Newspaper record collections amongst many others.

TheGenealogist uses the latest technology to help you bring your family history to life. Use TheGenealogist to find your ancestors today!

 

*Disclosure: Please note this post contains affiliate links. This does not mean that you pay more just that I make a percentage on the sales from my links. The payments help me pay for the cost of running the site. You may like to read this explanation here:

http://paidforadvertising.co.uk/

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Researching mariners

Visit to the Cutty Sark - Copyright A. Derbyshire 2018
John and Nick Thorne visit the Cutty Sark

 

I am just back from a visit to Greenwich with my dad who is almost 93 and still fascinated by everything around him.

He had asked my sister and I to organise the trip and the two of us had a lot of fun watching him engage with the ship and its very helpful volunteer guides.

While being educated about the crew and what they would have had to do when serving on this fast sailing clipper, the knowledgeable guide explained how there was  a lot of material to search on the Cutty Sark in the National Maritime Museum that is close by. This got me thinking about family history research for those of us that have had Royal Navy sailors or Merchant Navy mariners in our past families.

 

The National Maritime Museum is part of the Royal Museums Greenwich, that includes the Cutty Sark. There are a number of exhibitions that you can view at the complex, but the National Maritime Museum also houses the Caird Library and Archive.

If you are researching an ancestor then the good news is that this extensive maritime reference resource has free entry – you just need to register for a Reader’s Ticket. At the time of writing (April 2018) the opening hours are:

Tuesday–Friday, 10am–4.45pm; Saturday 10am–1pm, 2pm–4.45pm.

The National Maritime Museum and Archive is a fantastic and useful resource for finding out about your ancestors who went to sea. They do warn you, however, on their website that tracing people who served or travelled on ships can be a complex task and you may need to consult a range of different resources – their records can help you to search for members of the Merchant Navy and the Royal Navy as well as vessels and voyages​ but you may also have to back this up with records held elsewhere.

Read more at https://www.rmg.co.uk/national-maritime-museum/caird-library/family-history-research#dG1k1rqo8vIK0DKu.99

I found that there are a number of useful research guides on their website that can help you in your investigations and a number of links that will point you to useful resources that are housed elsewhere at other archives.

 

If you, like me, have salt in your blood then this is a facility that you should use.

Cutty Sark- Copyright Nick Thorne 2018
Copyright Nick Thorne 2018
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