HI Eileen, Do you know that you can access the first page of the 1871 schedule for the training ship Wellesley on the Ancestry site? This first page gives details about the vessel herself, Name, Offical Number (or in this instance it says Training Ship instead as she is a Royal Navy vessel), the port to which she belongs, her tonnage, her description i.e. Type of ship, the name of the Master and lastly the date and the schedule was issued to the master and the position of the vessel at midnight on census night, 2nd April 1871. To access this page, you can do the same on the other census where Vessels are available, as they are from 1861 onwards. Go to the image showing your ancestors and look along the top of the page to see the word Vessels click on that link and it will take you to an alphabetial list of Ship's names. Scroll down to find the one that interests you. Beware though that sometimes there is more than one ship by the same name in which case you may find, as in the case of the Wellesley, that on the image, listing the seaman on board that vessel, there is a number after the name of the vessel, e.g. Wellesley 1 where your John & Thomas Williamson are both shown, or Wellesley 2. So be careful which ones schedule you look at for the ships names list. The reference for your two young men is RG10 piece 5111 folio85 Vessel Wellesley 1. (no page numbers given for vessels). In the 1861 census you an also find Merchant ships details in the same way as above. You could try the Mariners website and the Mariners Mailing list which is linked from that website. There are a lot of very helpful subscribers to the mariners mailing list and someone is bound to be able to help with the Wellesley. http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/ is the URL for the Mariners site, you will find hints of researching mariners both Royal Naval and Merchant. Hope this helps Regards Jenny DeAngelis Spain. >I too am researching "Forster" in Co. Durham, as well as Williamson and > Reay. Frances Forster married John Williamson in 1856 in South Shields, > died aged only about 31 in 1867, already a widow. Her parents were William > Forster from Tanfield and Mary (unknown) from Newcastle. Her two children > Thomas Forster Williamson and John William Williamson I believe were on > the > training ship "Wellesley" at the 1871 census. Thomas eventually moved to > Liverpool and worked for the White Star Line but I have lost track of John > William. Does any lister know anything at all about the Wellesley records > please because they may give some clue as to which of the many John > Williamsons from South Shields or Scotland, married Frances, and fathered > the two boys.