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Some Useful Marine and Naval Links for Genealogists

Naval Genealogy

The Royal Australian Navy Navy Lists

The Royal Australian Navy has put .pdf copies of their semi-annual Navy Lists on their website. From these it can be confirmed if a person of interest was an officer in the Royal Australian Navy. In some cases it provides dates of birth. Unfortunately these lists do not provide any information on other ranks.

The Royal Navy List Navy Lists

This is a personal project by the site owner, Lieutenant-Commander Mike Coombes RN, who charges a subscription fee to use it. (It's not a for-profit venture, rather he is trying to recoup out of pocket expenses). For those without access to a naval museum that may (or may not) have the lists you want this could be very handy.In 2003 he started creating a database of Navy List information, and he now has Navy Lists and Retired Lists covering nearly 200 years. The Navy List has been published each year. It contains the details of all Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service (QARNNS), and the former Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS ) commissioned officers who were serving in the year of publication, and also details of the commissioned officers of their Reserve Forces.It also includes officers of the Sea Cadet Corps, and of the Combined Cadet Force. It does not include Non Commissioned Officers, Junior Ranks and Ratings.

The Naval Biographical Database Website

This is a listing of People, Places, Ships, Organisations and Events associated with the Royal Navy since 1660.This is a personal project of Christopher Donnithorne. The most recent update includes information on 20,000 people and more than 5,000 ships.The owner offers free use of the database of the lists of people and ships. In an attempt to help cover the costs of the project, there is a charge for requests for more detailed information.

Your Old Books and Maps Website

This is a publishing company specializing in digital products related to the Army and Navy. They have published, on CD, the Navy Lists of the Royal Navy from 1701 to 1950 by picking representative years and scanning copies onto a CD. They are offering these for sale.

Admiralty Records as Sources for Biography and Genealogy

The UK Public Record Office Records Information Leaflet No. 2 is accessible on-line at the above address.Other leaflets about records of Royal Marines, Prisoners-of-War, Nurses, Medals and Naval matters in general are avaiable at this link.

An excellent reference book Naval Records for Genealogists by N.A.M. Rodger, published by the Public Record Office Handbook No. 22 PRO Publications, Kew, 1998. ISBN 1-873-162-588 is highly recommended.

Links for Merchant Mariner Genealogy

The Ship's List

A comprehensive collection of passenger list, vessels, companies. It will help you find your ancestors on ships' passenger lists.We also have immigration reports, newspaper records, shipwreck information, ship pictures, ship descriptions, shipping-line fleet lists and more; as well as hundreds of passenger lists to Canada, USA, Australia and even some for South Africa. They have over 3,500 totally free access web-pages with new databases added regularly.

Site News: March 23rd, 2013

Databases have been updated and are now holding 41,559 vessel histories (with 2,333 images) and 46,388 mariner biographies (with 2,039 images).

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