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Jake Fletcher – Researching Maritime Ancestors in the National Archives 1

Copyright©2016JakeFletcher.(http://travelyourgenealogy.com)

“Researching Maritime Ancestors in the National Archives”

Jake Fletcher [email protected] / http://travelyourgenealogy.com

I. ACCESSING MARITIME RECORDS AT NARA

The National Archives holds an extensive collection of records relating to mariners, ships, and maritime life. The most important record groups (RG) to consider for research are:

i. Records of the District Courts of the United States, RG 21 ii. Records of the U.S. Coast Guard, RG 26

iii. Records of the U.S. Bureau of Customs, RG 36 iv. Records of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation, RG 41 v. Records of the U.S. Treasury Department, RG 56

vi. Records of the U.S. State Department, RG 59 vii. Records of the U.S. Public Health Service, RG 90

Records of these different agencies are separated by NARA’s field offices, which collect records particular to their geographic region of the United States. If you are researching someone who lived in New England, federal records of the New England region have been archived at NARA Facility in Waltham, Massachusetts. Using the National Archives online catalog will allow you to access descriptions about the content of records for each customs district. Districts were assigned at key ports of entry for maritime activities. This allows researchers to know if records of that port survive for the time-period they are researching in. To search, go to http://www.archives.gov/research/catalog and click on “Advanced Search”. You can search the National Archives catalog by keyword, record group, date range, holding facility, and even more.



To research maritime records onsite at the archives or request a search, you will need to know some basic information about your ancestor including:

• Name of the ship they served on • Month/year they were on voyage • Port of origin

II. MARITIME PERSONNEL RECORDS

Crew lists needed to be approved by an officer at the customs house before a vessel could embark on a voyage. They usually contain the following information about each person aboard the vessel:

• Name • Position held on ship • Birthplace, residence/nationality, age • Height, skin color, hair color • Information regarding salary • Whether he deserted or died

Other documents that named the entire crew are the articles of agreement, wage returns, hospital records, and possibly ship logs. After the Steerage Act of 1819, the customs service was required to keep copies of civilian passenger lists for ships arriving at American ports until the 1890s when the U.S. created a separate bureau for immigration affairs. Seamen’s Protection Certificates were issued to U.S. mariners as proof of identification and citizenship. A proof of citizenship, signed by justice or notary, had to be presented by the seamen to the collector of customs in order to be issued his certificate. The customs collector kept only the proofs of citizenship, only recording the certificate issued in a register. These documents will tell you your ancestor’s birthplace, age, and physical description. Protection Certificates were discontinued around 1871, but resumed importance when American entered WWI in 1917 until 1940. These are available in NARA Record Groups 36 and 41.

• State Department Records

American ships were not safe abroad in the 1790s. Many American seamen were impressed by British, French, and Spanish navies, thus had to be repatriated by the U.S. Government. Records of impressed seamen are available on microfilm at NARA. Many records related to the lives of seamen and the shipping industry are scattered among consular records.



• Admiralty & Prize Cases

Historically, the Admiralty court presided over disputes regarding maritime activities. This included maritime-related injuries, claims for deceased or deserted seamen’s wages, damaged vessels, and piracy. Upon creation of the U.S. Government, admiralty cases were now under the jurisdiction of the U.S. District Courts. Record Group 21, Records of the District Court of the United States, hold admiralty cases dating back to the 18th century and records of New England district courts are at the branch in Waltham. Insurance and wage claims of deceased mariners can help reconstruct the identities of who sailed on a particular vessel, as well as their families. Many prize ships were taken by American privateers during the War of 1812 and the resulting court cases provide a great deal of historical insight into the voyages of these privateers.

III. GLOSSARY OF TERMS

The language of maritime documents may be unfamiliar to some genealogists. I have made available at my blog a glossary of maritime terms. This glossary came from an unpublished finding aid at the National Archives. You can download the PDF file at https://travelyourgenealogy.com/researchtoolbox

IV. INTERNET RESEARCH

Category Description Repository Web Address URL, Other Information

General Maritime Genealogy

The most comprehensive directory of links for any genealogy subject.

Cyndi’s List

http://www.cyndislist.com/occupations/fishermen-and-mariners/?page=1

Crew Lists 100 + collections of Passenger and Crew Lists from U.S., North America, and Europe.

Ancestry http://search.ancestry.com/search/

Crew Lists 30+ collections of crew lists from U.S., Canada, and Mexico

FamilySearch https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list




Crew Lists Whaling Crew List

New Bedford Free Library, New Bedford, MA

http://www.whalingmuseum.org/online_exhibits/crewlist/

Crew Lists Transcripts of Whaling Voyages from Fall River, MA.

National Maritime Digital Library

http://nmdl.org

Crew Lists Merchant Mariners Muster

Maine Maritime Museum, Bath, ME

http://www.mainemaritimemuseum.org/mariners-muster/

Crew Lists

One-Step Passenger List Search by Stephen P. Morse

http://www.stephenpmorse.org

Seamen’s Protection Certificate

U.S., Atlantic Ports Seamen’s Protection Certificates, 1792-1869

Ancestry http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1928 Protection registers and Proofs of Citizenship collected at the Customhouses of New Orleans, LA; New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA; Bath, ME; and Portsmouth, NH.


Providence, Rhode Island Customs District, 1796-1870

Ancestry http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=49313


Protection Certificate Register Database

Mystic Seaport Museum

(http://library.mysticseaport.org/initiative/protectionindex.cfm). Data is taken from the registers of the custom houses in Fall River, Gloucester, Marblehead, and Salem, MA; Newport, RI, New Haven, CT, and New London, CT from 1796 -1871.


Proofs of Citizenship for the Port of Philadelphia, 1792-1861

FamilySearch https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2290427. Digitized version of the original microfilm. Has not been fully indexed.


Proofs of Citizenship for the Port of Bath, ME, 1833-1868

FamilySearch https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2300674Port of Bath, Maine, 1833, 1836, 1839-1850, 1853-1865, 1867-1868; and at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 1857-1858. Digitized images of the original





New England Seamen’s Identification Cards, 1918-1940.

FamilySearch https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2191222

Shipping Lists

Lloyd’s List, 1741-1826

Hathitrust Digital Library

(babel.hathitrust.org) – Also available at http://www.maritimearchives.co.uk

Shipping Lists

Whaleman’s Shipping List and Merchant’s Transcript, 1843-1914.

National Maritime Digital Library

http://nmdl.org

Shipping Lists

Boston Globe, New York Times, etc.

Boston Public Library

Boston Public Library (http://www.bpl.org/electronic/) has an extensive collection of digitized newspapers. Residents of Massachusetts are eligible to register for a FREE E-Card, which allows them to access these databases from their home computer.

Shipping Lists

Newspapers from all 50 states.

Library of Congress

LOC features a newspaper database called Chronicling America.

Shipping Lists

Online newspaper directory

The Ancestor Hunt

theancestorhunt.com

Shipping Registers

Merchant Vessels of the United States

Google Books books.google.com

Shipping Registers

Compiled by WPA.

Internet Archive

Registers compiled from Customs Districts of Barnstable, New Bedford, Plymouth, and Boston. (https://archive.org/)

Shipping Registers

American Lloyd’s Register of American and Foreign Shipping, 1859-1883.


http://www.library.mysticseaport.org

Shipping Registers

Connecticut Ship Database, 1789-1939; Ship Registers, 1857-1900, Yacht Registers.


http://www.library.mysticseaport.org

Shipping Registers

Lloyd’s Register, 1764-1899 (incomplete).

Maritime Archives (UK)

http://www.maritimearchives.co.uk




Government Publications

Annual report of the Supervising Inspector General, Steamboat Inspection Service, 1894-1931

Hathitrust https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000078563

Government Publications

List of masters, mates, pilots, and engineers of merchant steam and other motor vessels

1894-1897, 1907-1915

(https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/101659336) and (https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003504783)

V. MARITIME MUSEUM COLLECTIONS Many maritime records stayed in the hands of private collectors. A directory of New England maritime museums is available through Smith’s Master Index to Maritime Museums (http://www.maritimemuseums.net). ArchiveGrid is a great way to locate manuscript collections pertaining to ship captains, merchants, and customhouse officers. It is searchable through WorldCat (https://beta.worldcat.org/archivegrid/.)

VI. FURTHER READING Eales, Anne Bruner & Kvasnicka, Robert M. Guide To Genealogical Research in the National Archives of the United States. 3rd ed. (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administraiton, 2000.) Hickey, Walter V. “The Final Voyage of the Portland: Reconstructing the List of the Steamer’s Crew through NARA Records” in Prologue 38(Winter 2006): 4. http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2006/winter/portland.html Stein, Douglas L., American Maritime Documents, 1776-1860, illustrated and described, (Mystic, CT: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1992.) Szucs, Loretto D., and Luebking, Sandra H. The Archives: A Guide to the National Archives Field Branches, (Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry, 1988), 122-35.



For a more extensive overview of sources related to maritime history and genealogy, check out my Maritime Genealogy Guide and Bibliography, available for download at https://travelyourgenealogy.com/researchtoolbox.

VII. CONTACT INFORMATION The National Archives at Boston 380 Trapelo Road Waltham, Massachusetts 02452-6399 Telephone: (781) 663-0144 E-mail: [email protected] Website: https://www.archives.gov/boston National Archives and Records Administration RE: Old Military and Civil Records Unit, Textual Archives Division 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20408 Telephone: (202) 357-5287 E-mail: [email protected] More Information: http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/washington/