Lynne, if you find his post 1873 record in documentsonline and he also served before then, the post 1873 record should also give you his earlier Continuous Service (CS) number. These are in three series from 1853 to 1872 and you need to check if the CS number has a suffix a or b is is without a suffix. This number, including suffix of present, can be used to order the earlier service record from ADM 139 in the National Archives. There's explanation of all this in Tracing Your Naval Ancestors by Bruno Pappalardo. Cheers, Ian lynne robinson wrote: > Hi Mike, > > That's very helpful. Its difficult for me to judge how the class system might > have worked at that time. Just to be sure I understand, my gggrandfather, the > petty officer, would have been a COMMISSIONED officer and therefore likely > wouldn't have left the Navy until he died or retired? > > How likely is it that he died on land and had his death recorded there? > I can't > find him in the online Royal Navy lists and, since they start at 1873, he > should be there unless he died or retired prior to that. I guess he could have > been invalided out since he likely would have been too young to retire. > > Any clues as to his likely life history are helpful since I have had great > difficulty in being sure I have the right John Little. > > Hope you are enjoying your retirement, Mike. Thanks for taking time to help > those of us who are still slaving away. > > > Lynne >