Genealogy Chat

Well, I don't know if you'll find him on a census, but there are lots of Australian shipping websites with names of crew and passengers which it will be worth your while searching. One is http://mariners.records.nsw.gov.au/ but if you look at http://directory.google(.)com/Top/Society/Genealogy/Immigration/Ships/ remove the brackets you should find lots more. When you search these lists for your ancestor's name it may well be in the format of surname then initial or surname then first name, so don't give up if you don't find him at first! Kate.

Hi, Just a thought may be worth a look. I have a disc with Crew lists for years 1863-1913 although it has 270000 entries I haven't found any of my own relatives yet!! If you would like to send me his name I will look we may be lucky. It gives the name of the ship they are on at the time, place and dob. No harm in looking. Germaine

Kate, In answer to your question.....I'm just working on the off chance that perhaps my seamen may have been on the 1881 census. Perhaps he returned to England (as I'm trying to fill in missing years) before I know he settled in Sth Aust. In general finding missing seamen is a tad hard as they could be anywhere. thanks Victoria

hiyah, don't know if anone has tried htis site it is very good. google ships in port Uk 1881 should get you there Germaine PS hiyah John

Victoria - I am confused. If he was born in 1861 and went to Australia late 1870's, what census would he be on as a seaman? Kate.

Hi Nadir, I am after a merchant seamen. I realize there is info at Kew but as I am in Aust is a tad hard to access that. My man was born about 1861 Islington London and came to Aust. Late 1870's to my knowledge. Victoria Katazyna, I'll have alook at that message ...thanks Victoria

Hi again Victoria do you know which type of seaman you are looking for,(merchant,navy or trawlerman)????? and where they sailed from ? Regards John (nadir)

Hi victoria I dont know if this will be of any help to you , but I have a lot of relatives that lived in Fleetwood and were fishermen. I found that if I knew the name of there boat it sometimes appears on the census as their address Regards John Clewlow

Victoria - My great-grandfather turned up on the 1891 census of Scotland, although he was English. I think the ship he was on must have been Scottish-owned. Only latitude and longitude coordinates are given for its location and it seems to have been in English waters at the time. (I still haven't found him on the 1881, though.) Some of my other seamen rellies have turned up in 'vessels' and the information given isn't always as full as it might be if they were at home so it may take some searching to find them. Some of them haven't turned up yet! I suppose if they were on foreign-owned ships not in port if there would have been no obligation to include them in the census, though. Kate.

Ive never found any of my close sailor rellies on ship in a census, but I did find a cabin boy for someone else and it gave the name of the fishing boat, xx miles off the coast of xxx - so I guess its up to how efficient the master was.

Hi richard and Carol, Thankyou for your prompt reply.....barely had time to type my request.... before I got your answers! Victoria

All the crews of Royal Navy ships should be listed in the census, whether they were in port or at sea. British-registered merchant shipping should also have been included in each census, but in practice many ships were missed unless they were in an English port at the time. You shouldn't need to do anything special to find a seaman name on the Ancestry census collection, though of course, as with our land-based ancestors, there is always the possibility of a mistranscribed name! If you know the ship's name, try putting it as a keyword in your search. Often crew members are entered with initials instead of full first names, so search for e.g. J Smith as well as John Smith, etc. Richard

Seamen would not be on a census if they were at sea at the time of the census. They would have been included if the ship was in port at the time. If you are using ancestry, go to the census you want, then scroll down below the search box where you will see all the counties. Among them is a link for Royal Navy.

Hi Everyone, Has anyone any tips or ideas about what a seamen could be called on census. for example....mariner, sailor, etc. Has anyone had success finding a seamen ancestor on ancestry? If so could they tell me how they went about searching. Appreciate any suggestions. Thankyou Victoria