navy

Tracing merchant seamen, 1857-1918

A frustrating aspect of researching merchant navy ancestors is the ‘black hole’ between 1857 and 1918 when there are no records for individual seamen. This podcast looks at what records there are for this period, how to access them and ...
Anxiety, dread and disease: British ports 1834-1870

As Britain’s status as the ‘workshop of the world’ grew, so did the new industrial and trading towns. Ports became densely populated and ripe for the spread of infection; once disease took hold it moved rapidly and lethally. Yet what ...
Journeys of discovery: surgeons at sea

Professor Laurence Brockliss, from the University of Oxford, discusses how ADM 101 has been used by his team over the past ten years, and considers how the newly digitised files will aid their future research. This talk was recorded as ...
Naval medical officers’ journals and the history of medicine

The naval medical officers’ journals of ADM 101 provide a coherent view of the beliefs and practices of a body of rank and file medical practitioners during the late 18th and 19th centuries. They provide a valuable source for examining ...
Sailors, storms and science: how Royal Navy logbooks help us understand climate change

Dr Dennis Wheeler, from the University of Sunderland, discusses the use of historical Royal Navy logbooks in studies of climate change, focusing on the archival resources rather than scientific conclusions.
Tracing ancestors in Nelson’s Navy

An overview of the essential finding aids and documents held by The National Archives which can be used to trace ancestors who served in Nelson’s Navy.
Merchant Navy operational records

Janet Dempsey examines the wealth of records which deal with the tragedy, terror, heroism and honour of the Merchant Navy in both World Wars.
Royal Navy service records

Mark Pearsall covers the main sources for officers and ratings service records in this introductory talk about Royal Navy service records from the late 18th century to the early 20th century.
Marriages at sea – fact or fiction?

There is a rumour in the family that an ancestor was married at sea! How often have we heard this? Is it fact or fiction? Were marriages at sea permitted and, if so, where are records of them to be ...
Tracing births and deaths at sea

Ships carrying our ancestors to faraway places often arrived with more, or less, passengers than they they set out with. In this talk Dr Christopher Watts examines the vast range of records, both at The National Archives and elsewhere, that ...