Hello Nivard, Clare is quite right: The National Archives would be the first repository in which to hunt for any crew list. But ... they do turn up in other places - County Records Offices, public libraries, personal papers of rich ship-owning families, archives of shipping lines, local histories etc. etc. Still, the first step of the process is to establish the Port of Registry. For an 1802 voyage of one of my mariners, I got spectacularly lucky. The coastal collier ANN was owned by the coal merchants Michael Henley and Sons of Wapping, a firm which apparently never, Ever, EVER threw out even one single scrap of paper. NMM at Greenwich has the salvage file for that wreck which gave me the names of every man aboard, his ranking, his wage, what he ate and even from which shops the provisions were bought - more information than an official crew list would have given me. "Nil Desperandum Auspice Deo". If we'd wanted an easy hobby, we could have taken up needlepoint. Regards,Adi From: Nivard Ovington via <mariners@rootsweb.com> To: clare@ladysteps.co.uk; mariners@rootsweb.com Sent: Thursday, October 1, 2015 2:56 PM Subject: Re: [MAR] George WEBSTER 1730 to 1795 master mariner   Hi Clare Thanks for that, sadly they are to late for my man who died in 1795 I have been looking into BT98 but again they are not digitised so require a visit to Kew If I can get enough information together I may try a visit at some point, as my daughter lives fairly close Thanks again for your input Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK)

Thanks Adi I couldn't agree more, you appreciate something far more if you have to work hard for it It sounds like you were very lucky in your case I have been dragged away from my search by other things but hope to resume next week Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) On 06/10/2015 18:20, Mme_N_Carmichael wrote: > Hello Nivard, > > Clare is quite right: The National Archives would be the first > repository in which to hunt for any crew list. But ... they do turn up > in other places - County Records Offices, public libraries, personal > papers of rich ship-owning families, archives of shipping lines, local > histories etc. etc. Still, the first step of the process is to establish > the Port of Registry. > > For an 1802 voyage of one of my mariners, I got spectacularly lucky. The > coastal collier ANN was owned by the coal merchants Michael Henley and > Sons of Wapping, a firm which apparently never, Ever, EVER threw out > even one single scrap of paper. NMM at Greenwich has the salvage file > for that wreck which gave me the names of every man aboard, his ranking, > his wage, what he ate and even from which shops the provisions were > bought - more information than an official crew list would have given > me. "Nil Desperandum Auspice Deo". If we'd wanted an easy hobby, we > could have taken up needlepoint. > > Regards, > Adi