Hello Michelle,   The C30787 and C05868/09614 are the certificate numbers, You can hire a researcher to look up the voyages or, with that information, yourself, you can order images of the original paperwork from Greenwich. Once you have ship names and dates you can try searching the newspapers for snippetts about the voyages.   Here's a link to the application form: http://www.nmm.ac.uk/upload/pdf/masters_certificate_order_form.pdf BUT noodle around the National Maritime Museum site first and check that the price hasn't increased as I saved this PDF a few months ago, before their renovations.   Here's a link to a post in Mariners List Archives giving an actual example of the information you'll get if their Applications for Certificates have survived (not all do). http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/Mariners/2011-03/1300554486   The last one I bought ran to 16 pages total. They mail you a CD with the images on it.   Regards, Adi   --- On Wed, 7/20/11, Michelle Wilson <micpaint.wilson@gmail.com> wrote: I have been sent the numbers of two of my Capt. Thomas Kemp's certificates and some volume information but I have no way to follow up on it as I understand you have to go to the records office to view the records.  Is there anyone in the area that could hire to do the look-ups for me?  I'm not even sure what the numbers they sent me mean but everything I got is below: Thomas Kemp-born Liverpool, b. 1820  Liverpool -certificate # C30787  1850 : vol 9: 1851-1864 ; vol 51 Thomas Henry Kemp b.1853 - Liverpool - certificate #C05868 changed to 09614 - 1`879:  Vol 36-Liverpool 1879;  vol. 21 - 1879;  vol.136- 1880, 1882-1887; vol. 51- 1888-1890 I really do not understand all the coding. I guess some information is filed in more than one volume.