Debbie Beavis
 

 The General Register Office's Marine Registers record deaths at sea on ships registered in Great Britain or Ireland from 1 July 1837. These are available on film or fiche through LDS libraries everywhere. The IGI covers events 'at sea.' If the name you are seeking does not appear in the Marine Registers of the GRO, then you should consider a search in the records held at the Public Record Office in Kew, England.

They are held in the following series of records. Note that many of these registers have also been filmed and may therefore be available through your nearest LDS library.

1. BT153 - Registers of Wages and Effects of Deceased Seamen 1852-1889

Registers for 1852-1866 show the following:
 

name
ticket number
date of engagement on this vessel
place, date and cause of death
name and port of registry of ship
master
date and place of payment of outstanding wages
amount of same and date of receipt by Board of Trade

Registers for 1867-1889 also include:
 

age
rating
official number of vessel
voyage details

This class of documents is separately indexed in two ways  - alphabetically by seaman's name in BT154, or by ship name in BT155.

2. BT156 - Monthly Lists of Deaths of Seamen 1886-1889

These records show:
 

name
age
rating on board
nationality/birthplace
previous address
cause of death
place of death
ship's name, official number and port of registry

3. BT157 - Registers of Seamen's Deaths Classified by Cause 1882-1888

This is indexed according to cause noting specific illnesses or accidents and gives the information shown in BT156 with the addition of information about the last voyage. It may also contain additional information in the column marked 'remarks.'

4. BT159 - Registers of Deaths of British Nationals at Sea 1875-1888

These registers also include deaths of passengers.

5. BT334 - Registers and Indexes of Births, Deaths and Marriages of Passengers and Seamen at Sea, 1891-1972

In an ideal situation, all these entries should appear in the GRO Marine Registers but in practice there are many omissions as records were not always forwarded. The GRO Marine Registers themselves began much earlier than the BT records mentioned above but again there are many omissions in the early years. In order to search for a record of an event at sea, it may be necessary to search all of the above sources.

Finally there is also a class of miscellaneous returns at the PRO:

4. RG32 - General Register Office: Miscellaneous Returns of Births, Marriages and Deaths.

These record births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials of British subjects, nationals of the Colonies, Commonwealth and countries under British jurisdiction, on British and foreign ships.

These records are available on film, are indexed in RG43 (also filmed) and may therefore be available through the LDS library system.

This is an overview of the most likely sources for locating information of events at sea. The PRO have recently updated their information leaflets, and the most recent version is now online at their website http://www.pro.gov.uk

They have also placed their catalogue on line, from which you may obtain the correct reference for the document you need.  Any records which have been filmed may also be available through LDS Family History Centres. Note that PRO references are not LDS references! You will need to search the LDS catalogue (also now online) in order to obtain the correct LDS reference allowing you to order the film you need.

A short cut to finding this section of the catalogue is:
Go to the custom search page at http://www.familysearch.org/Search/customhomepage.asp
Click on Family History Library Catalog
Click on All Searches
Click on Author Search
In the Author Box, enter exactly as between quotes below "Great Britain. Board of Trade. Mercantile Marine Department"

The PRO records available are:

BT 159, 160

Last updated 21.04.02ef
 

Merchant Navy Index