Who Do You Think You Are? Encyclopedia of Genealogy (36 page)

Merchant Navy personnel have been entitled to medals for service and gallantry from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. Indeed, individuals of the Merchant Navy were often involved in conflict during the two world wars and thus became entitled to the same medals as were
awarded to military personnel. Below is a summary of the main types of medals given to merchant seamen.

The main medal awarded for gallantry at sea was the Albert Medal. Medal registers for the Albert Medal can be found in BT 97, covering the years 1866 to 1913. Further medal registers for awards of gallantry (from 1866 to 1986) can be found in the following series: BT 261, BT 339 and MT 9.

Merchant seamen who were involved in the First World War were entitled to four medals:

•
 
The 1914–1915 Star

•
 
The British War Medal

•
 
The Victory Medal

•
 
The Mercantile Marine Medal

The first three medals were the same medals awarded to branches of the armed forces. As such, awards of these medals will be found in the same series as that of the Royal Navy, ADM 171.

The Mercantile Marine Medal was specifically awarded to individuals who served for a minimum of six months during the First World War and made one or more journeys through a danger zone. BT 351 holds an index to each recipient of the award. Each entry should record the name, birth details, rank and other career details.

Merchant seamen and officers were often awarded other Royal Naval gallantry awards and records can be found in ADM 116, ADM 12 and ADM 137.

If you know that the individual you are researching died in conflict then refer to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's ‘debt of honour' roll, available online at www.cwgc.org (discussed in more detail in
Chapter 9
).

The Merchant Navy formed an important part of the fighting force during the Second World War. The Ministry
of Shipping took control over the Merchant Navy as soon as the conflict started in 1939.

The main record series relating to seamen who were awarded a service medal for this period is in BT 395. However, medals were not issued automatically; rather the individual had to claim his medal. Hence, if your ancestor did not claim his medal there will be no record of him in this series. (Indeed, it is still possible for individuals to claim their medals, if they can prove their service to the Registry of Shipping and Seamen. As such the series covers the dates 1946 to 2002.) Any of eight different medals were awarded to merchant navy personnel: the War Medal, the Atlantic Star, 1939–1945 Star, Africa Star, Pacific Star, Burma Star, France and Germany Star, and the Italy Star. This series has now been placed on The National Archives website at Documents Online and can be searched free of charge (viewing a record will incur a cost, though).

Gallantry awards for this period have been described above. Additionally, award of such medals would also be recorded in the
London Gazette
and
The Times
, both of which can be searched online.

The Merchant Marine Memorial was built at Tower Hill, London, to commemorate those merchant seamen who died during the world wars. The Trinity House Corporation has the register for this memorial, which can be consulted on their premises at Tower Hill.

The London Guildhall Library houses the marine records of the Corporation of Lloyd's of London. The collection includes a number of different sources useful for tracing seamen and shipping in general. They include:

•
The Mercantile Navy List
: This is the official list of British registered merchant ships and has been published annually since 1850 (excluding 1941–46). They list each ship on an individual basis, including its official number, owner and size of vessel. From 1857 to 1864 details of the certificates of masters and mates on the ship were also included.

•
The Lloyd's Register
: Another comprehensive list of vessels, produced from 1775 onwards. The lists were compiled for insurance purposes and give details of each individual vessel's name, number, owner, master and construction details.

•
Lloyd's Captains' Register
: This is the most useful genealogical register, listing holders of masters' certificates from 1869 to 1948. Each entry also gives the birth details of the individual and a brief career history.

•
Lloyd's List
: This list was begun in 1741 and was a weekly register of ships' arrivals and departures at each particular port, detailing from which port the vessel had come and where it was headed. The name of the master of the ship is also recorded. The Guildhall Library has an index to the ships from 1838 onwards. The National Maritime Museum and the British Library's Newspaper Archive also have copies of this list.

Amanda Redman knew very little about her mother Joan's family, the Herringtons, other than rumours that her grandfather – Joan's father – William Herrington was a strict disciplinarian. Yet on talking to Joan a long-forgotten family secret emerged – a missing half-brother, Cyril Herrington, who was the illegitimate daughter of Joan's mother, Agnes, conceived before she married William. Intrigued, Amanda decided to find out more about her elusive ancestor.

No birth certificate could be found for Cyril, but on asking around the family it turned out that he had died in Liverpool, and that he had married and had a child. By painstakingly looking through civil registration material, Amanda tracked down her half-cousin and, on meeting her, gained some important clues about her half-uncle's life – including the fact that he served in the Merchant Navy.

By running a search online and checking The National Archives catalogue, Amanda discovered that a key document survived in record series BT 372 – Cyril's seaman's pouch, which contained personal information about him. On inspecting its contents, she found photographs of him dating from 1936, when he first signed up as a cook, and 1969, at the end of his career, as well as details of his height, next of kin, address and date of birth – listed as 19 April 1917. However, further documentation also indicated that he had, at some point, changed his name from Pillings to Herrington (possibly giving a clue as to his natural father's surname) and that his real date of birth was 1919, not 1917.

Amanda was able to cross-reference the information in his seaman's pouch with another document in the Fifth Register of Seamen in record series BT 382, including a complete list of all the vessels that he had served on from 1941 until his discharge in 1969, including in 1942 an unauthorized stint on an American vessel, the
Gulf Coast
.

Rather remarkably, further investigation into Amanda's family tree led to a maternal 2 x great-grandfather who also earned a living in the Merchant Navy – a man with the rather grand name of James St Ledger, who was born in 1837 in New Ross, County Wexford, Ireland. At the time of the 1881 census he was listed as the master of a vessel called the
Alma
, which was in port at Porthcawl when the enumerators visited. The ship was described as a coasting schooner, with its home port listed as Falmouth, where the rest of James's family lived. However, he was accompanied on board the
Alma
by his son, William Henry St Ledger, an ordinary seaman clearly following in his father's footsteps. Some of the later voyages of the
Alma
were researched by checking the official ship's number against the surviving crew lists and agreements at The National Archives, in record series BT 99.

Masters of British ships were required to record all births, marriages and deaths that occurred on their vessels from approximately the mid-nineteenth century onwards. The masters would pass this information on to the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen who would subsequently send on the information to the appropriate General Record Office for England, Scotland and Ireland. The National Archives also has the records that were originally with the RGSS. Separate registers were kept for seamen and passengers until 1889. After that date a new combined series of registers was introduced. Details about General Record Offices and the system for recording civil registration certificates for births, marriages and deaths can be found in
Chapter 5
.

Suggestions for further reading:

• Records of Merchant Shipping and Seamen
by Kelvin Smith, Christopher T. Watts and Michael J. Watts (Public Record Office Publications, 1988)

• My Ancestor Was a Merchant Seaman
by Christopher T. and Michael J. Watts (Society of Genealogists, 2nd edition, 2002)

•
Further details about the National Maritime Museum's collections and research guides can be found at www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/nav.2983

•
The National Archives research guides nos. 89–95 and 110–115

In 1851 the Seaman's Fund Winding-up Act was introduced. The Act required that masters of British ships hand over the personal belongings and wages of seamen who died on their ship to the sailor's next of kin. Records of this were maintained in registers now found in BT 153 (indexed by BT 154). The registers should detail where the seaman was engaged from, his cause of death and his wage details.

The East India Company (EIC), being originally a trading company, was very prominent in marine activities. The company owned and chartered many ships until its abolition in 1858. Many published sources listing the ships owned by the EIC can be consulted either at the National Maritime Museum or at the British Library (where the original records of the EIC are stored). The various registers produced by Lloyd's (mentioned above) also include information regarding EIC ships.

The British Library has the following EIC records that may be useful to look at:

•
The East India Register and Directory
, which contains lists of masters and mates under ‘marine establishments', along with Army officers.

• The EIC records sometimes refer to the appointments of some individual marine officers.

• Journals and logs for approximately 10,000 ships (although not every ship's record has survived), from the early seventeenth century to 1856. The India Office records are described in more detail in
India Office Library and Records: A Brief Guide to Biographical Sources
by I.A. Baxter (London, 1979; second edition 1990).

In addition, BT 156 has printed monthly lists of deceased seamen (giving age and birthplace and death details) from 1886 to 1890. BT 157 lists deaths and cause of death of seamen from 1882 to 1888.

… find online sources for births, marriages and deaths at sea

Some websites provide information on births, marriages and deaths at sea:

1.
www.findmypast.com

This website has placed all of the main Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen records available at The National Archives on its website. It is possible to search births from 1854 to 1887, marriages from 1854 to 1883 and deaths from 1854 to 1890. It can be searched free of charge but viewing the record incurs a cost
.

2.
www.shiplist.com

This website has transcribed every marriage found in BT 334/117 and can be viewed free of charge at www.theshiplist.com/ Forms/marriagesatsea.html
.

All of these three events were legally required to be recorded after the Merchant Shipping Act of 1854. They were extracted from the official ships' logs and can be found in the following sources:

•
 
BT 158 has details of births, marriages and deaths of all passengers at sea from 1854 to 1890. After 1883 there are no marriages recorded; only births and deaths to 1887 (with deaths only from 1888).

•
 
BT 159 has registers of deaths at sea of British nationals from 1875 to 1891.

•
 
BT 160 lists births of British nationals from 1875 to 1891. The registers of BT 159 and BT 160 were formed in response to the Birth and Death Registration Act of 1874, whereby ships' masters had to record births and deaths separately for all British and foreign-registered ships.

After 1891 a new system was introduced whereby births, marriages and deaths of passengers and seamen (marriages and deaths only) were recorded together in a combined register. The majority of these records are in BT 334 and include details of non-British nationals too. There are indexes to births and deaths, indexed by individual surname and by the name of the ship. All entries should include the ship's name, official number and where it was registered.

•
 
Births:
Births are recorded from 1891 to 1964 (indexes to 1960). The record gives the father's name, rank or occupation, birthplace or nationality and last residence and the mother's name, maiden surname and last residence.

•
 
Marriages:
Marriages start from 1854 and go up to 1972 and are all found in piece BT 334/117 (also available online).

•
 
Deaths:
Death registers are available from 1891 to 1964. Additionally, BT 341 included any inquests for deaths at sea (organized by ship name).

Aside from joining the Merchant Navy, there were plenty of other lines of work that our seafaring or coastal ancestors chose to embark upon, and they are described in more detail in this chapter – along with ways you can find out more about them in archives, libraries and other institutions.

The history of the Coastguard began with the desire of the authorities to limit and even eliminate the large amount of smuggling prevalent since medieval times when duties were first imposed on various imports and exports. Indeed, whenever a duty was placed on a particular product, such a product would automatically become suitable for smuggling. The Board of Customs was historically responsible for collecting the duties placed on such goods and appointed ‘Preventive Officers' in wartime to fight against smuggling, and also for intelligence duties. However, this was not a permanent force.

‘The coastguard service was established to combat smuggling – only later did lifesaving become its function
.'

The modern-day Coastguard service was established in 1822 to counteract smuggling, but its immediate predecessors – the Riding Officers, the Revenue Cruisers and the Preventive Water Guard – were formed earlier in the late seventeenth century as the first peacetime forces to guard the sea and to curtail smuggling. Riding officers were deployed in Kent and Sussex, with over 300 people being employed by the early eighteenth century. Their specific task was to stop any movement of smuggled goods inland, goods that may have escaped the notice of Revenue Cruisers or customs officials, while the Revenue Cruisers originally operated on the Kent and Sussex coasts to prevent any
smugglers arriving on shore. By 1782 Revenue Cruisers comprised 40 armed vessels, with 700 men working on these ships. The two bodies' jurisdiction gradually increased by the end of the eighteenth century to cover most of the British coastline (Scotland had its own forces).

The third force, the ‘Preventative Guard' was formed later in 1809. The force also operated on the coastal waters seeking out smugglers. Thus there were three stages at which a smuggler could be prevented from successfully bringing his goods into the country.

After the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 the idea of uniting these three branches was first suggested by Captain Joseph McCulloch for his forces in Kent, and in 1816 the Admiralty established the Coast Blockade service. This new force began patrolling the Kent coastline and the service proved very successful. In 1821 a committee suggested that the three services be united for the whole country and that this new body still remain under the overall control of the Board of Customs, with the Admiralty appointing officers for this service. Thus the ‘Coastguard' service started operating on 15 January 1822. The Coast Blockade service was amalgamated into the Coastguard service in 1831 and in total the force employed approximately 6,700 men. These men would work on the seas and onshore. Onshore Coastguard stations were established throughout the country, each under the command of a Chief Officer (usually a lieutenant of the Royal Navy).

Although the Board of Customs was responsible for the Coastguard service, the Admiralty controlled its recruitment as it wished to use the service as a reserve force for the Royal Navy. At the end of the Crimean War in 1856 entire control of the service was transferred to the Admiralty, which subdivided the Coastguard into three separate units: the Shore Force; the Permanent Cruiser Force; and the Guard ships.

The functions of the Coastguard grew; along with controlling smuggling the body was responsible for coastline defence and continued to act as a reserve force for the Navy. Additionally, lifesaving and dealing with wrecks became important functions. These responsibilities made the recruitment of personnel with naval skills to the Coastguard increasingly important. In this the service was aided by the fact that many new recruits came from the Bengal Marine, after the East India Company disbanded its Navy.

In 1925 the Royal Navy became responsible for the service's Naval
Signalling Force, the Board of Customs took control of the Coast Prevention Force, and the Board of Trade became responsible for the Coast Watching Force. Overall control of the Coastguard service is now in the hands of the Department of Transport.

Parliament published many reports during the nineteenth century concerning the preventative forces. Such reports may list individual officers and provide useful genealogical information about each officer. The National Archives holds many of these reports in its library. Good examples include:

•  
A Return of Officers and Men Appointed to the Preventive Boat Service between November 1816 and March 1819 (House of Commons Sessional Papers 1819 (569) XVII, 77); details each individual's name, age, place of birth, trade, length of time at sea, salary, and other allowances or appointments
.

•  
Return of Names, Age, Date of Appointment, Gross Pay and Allowances of all Chief Officers of the Coastguard, with Previous Service (House of Commons Sessional Papers 1857 XXVII, 253
.

The majority of the surviving records are to be found in The National Archives. However, as many different departments controlled the service throughout various points in its history, the records are scattered amongst many series.

Riding officers and Revenue Cruisers were used both by the Board of Customs and the Board of Excise. The difference was that a Riding officer employed by the Board of Excise would be responsible for collecting duties and ensuring individuals were not evading excise duty inland throughout the entire country. (Excise duty differed from customs duty as it was a tax paid on goods within the country.) It is important to know which Board – Customs or Excise – your ancestor worked for, as their records are stored in different National Archive document series, under CUST. This series is discussed later in this chapter, in the section looking at the careers of Customs and Excise officers.

It may be possible to find information for the earliest recruits, serving in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in the Admiralty and Secretariat Papers (ADM 1) indexed in ADM 12, or in the Treasury Board Papers (T 1). Treasury papers have a published calendar for 1556 to 1742. Otherwise, searching through these sources can be somewhat time-consuming.

As many employees of the preventative forces would have joined the Coastguard service upon its inception, Coastguard service records would also detail the earlier service details of such individuals. These records will be discussed in further details below. Pension records for some men can be found in CUST 40/28 (1818 to 1825).

The Admiralty was jointly responsible for administering the Revenue Cruisers. Hence, some records may be found for these officers amongst the Admiralty series (ADM). As the Admiralty appointed officers and other ranks to the various posts from 1816, the appointments of some officers can be found in ADM 6/56 (1816 to 1831). Additionally, the Navy List included officers for this service from 1814 onwards.

As already mentioned, depending on when your ancestor served in the Coastguard service, the majority of records will be found in either the Admiralty or the Board of Customs' records. Unfortunately, there is no single name index available to assist in your search.

Admiralty records for coastguard employees are in series ADM 175. Depending on which part of the United Kingdom your ancestor served in, records can be found as follows:

•
 
England:
Registers in ADM 175/74–80 for 1819 to 1866 Indexes in ADM 175/97–98 for 1823 to 1866

    
Nominations in ADM 6/199 for 1831 to 1850 and ADM 175/101 for 1851 to 1856

•
 
Ireland:
Registers in ADM 175/74, ADM 175/81, ADM 175/99 and ADM 175/100 for 1820 to 1849

•
 
Scotland:
Registers in ADM 175/74 for 1820 to 1824

ADM 175/102 also has indexes for discharge records for 1858 to 1868. Unfortunately, from 1866 to 1886 there are no surviving records. Thereafter service records are divided between ratings' records and officers' records.

1
.
Ratings' records

Ratings' records are available from 1900 to 1923. Service records for those dates can be found in ADM 175/82A to ADM 175/84B. These records are in card form and arranged alphabetically.

Further records for 1919 to 1923 are in ADM 175/85–89, indexed by ADM 175/108. In 1919 the Coastguard was significantly reduced in numbers with the end of the First World War. Hence many individuals were discharged and their records are in ADM 175/91–96. ADM 175/96 is indexed by ADM 175/107. Additionally, as many Coastguard personnel were involved in the First World War they would have been entitled to medals. These awards can be found in ADM 171.

2
.
Officers' records

Records for officers are available from 1886 to 1947. There are indexed service registers in ADM 175/103–107 and ADM 175/109–110.

As many men of the Coastguard had previously been with the Royal Navy it may be possible to find further information on them using the Royal Navy service records (discussed in
Chapter 10
). Specifically, records of Revenue Cruiser officers (lieutenants, masters and boatswains) being appointed by the Admiralty can be found in ADM 6/56 (for 1816 to 1831) and ADM 2/1127 (for 1822 to 1832). ADM 119 also has quarterly musters of Revenue Cutters for 1824 to 1857.

There are collections of coastguard records (succession books detailing the individuals serving at various stations at various points) arranged by location of ship, type of ship or name of ship. These records also contain personal details of individuals, but it is only feasible to search them if you are aware of either the type of ship your ancestor served on or its location. Below is a summary of the arrangement of these records:

•
 
Location:
From 1816 to 1866 there are records in ADM 175/1–10, ADM 175/13–19 and ADM 175/22–23 arranged by location, under the British Isles, England, Wales or Scotland. Further details can be obtained by searching in The National Archives catalogue.

•
 
Ship type:
Records for Cruisers survive from 1822 to 1863 in ADM 175/24–25. Records for Tenders are in ADM 175/26 for 1858 to 1868.

•
 
Establishment books:
Records for men working on Revenue Cruisers in numerous locations throughout the United Kingdom can be found in ADM 175/24–73. These records are the ships' establishment (crew list) and record books and run from 1816 to 1879. As they are arranged by location you need to know the approximate location where your ancestor was serving to use these books.

As the Board of Customs also had responsibility for the Coastguard service on different occasions it is possible to find records in the CUST series in the National Archives too. Below is a list of the most useful documents:

•
 
CUST 19/52–61 contains records relating to the establishment of Revenue Cruisers from 1827 to 1829

•
 
CUST 29/40–42 has Coastguard minute books from 1833 to 1849

•
 
CUST 38/32–60 has Coastguard statistics

•
 
CUST 39/173 details salary and incidents of the Thames Coastguard, 1828 to 1832

Pension records for retired Coastguard personnel can be found in a variety of sources:

•
 
ADM 23
Pensions paid by the Admiralty and civil pensions can be found in this series from 1866 to 1926.

•
 
PMG 23
This series contains additional records of civil pension payments paid by the Paymaster General from 1855 to 1935.

•
 
PMG 70
This series includes pensions paid to chief officers of the Coastguard by Greenwich Hospital. Payments began after an Order in Council of 16 February 1866. They cover the years 1870 to 1928.

•
 
T 2
This series contains the annual lists of individuals who were awarded pensions and superannuations. It was usual practice for the Board of Customs (prior to 1856) and thereafter the Admiralty to notify the Treasury of such awards. The Treasury would publish these in their ‘Public Office' registers. Unfortunately, only a tiny fraction of the paperwork referred to in T 2 survives in T 1.

•
 
CUST 30
This series (‘Out-Letter Entry Books: Extra Departmental') contains the actual texts of the Customs' letters to the Treasury, mentioned above. The information should provide details of the individual's career and the circumstances of his retirement.

It is possible to find original documents relating to the Coastguard stations themselves, including architectural plans, in The National Archives series WORK 30 (1844 to 1914). CUST 42/66 has a schedule of leases and deeds for Coastguard properties throughout Great Britain in 1857. ADM 7/7–39 contains records of the repair and upkeep of individual stations, arranged in a series of registers for 1828 to 1857.

Other records of relevance include:

•
 
CUST 38, containing annual abstracts of the Coastguard providing a variety of statistical data including salaries, details of expenses and costs involved with Coastguard houses and stations.

•
 
CUST 29/40–42, containing a number of entry books of orders and minuting other such information.

•
 
ADM 114/11, relating to the many issues and instructions concerned with the transfer of control of the Coastguard from the Board of Customs to the Admiralty in 1856.