Fully concur Nivard, And it is patently obvious that throughout much of the 19th Century, when the administrators attempted to put something into place for the first time, such as the BMD Indexes in 1837, that the initial attempt often didn't work properly e.g. for births, and it wasn't until the system was revised circa 1875, that things improved. And to give this message a maritime theme, the Admiralty, which spent much of its time chasing up commanding officers who failed to complete their paper work correctly, was involved in a major breach of national legislation, in that it failed to have most of the changes it introduced, from about the 1860s, put before the Privy Council, in order that it could advise the King or Queen in order to give the nod to new legislation, and it wasn't until 1907 that this major omission was finally corrected......and even then changes would often appear to have been placed before the Council many months or even years after changes were actually introduced, as some sort of after thought ? And in my experience it wasn't until after WWII that some form of order was introduced across the board in the Admiralty, where many departments were reluctant to play the game. So I think what I'm saying is that from the top to bottom, to most folk in England, Administration was something totally new, with which a lot of people had a job complying with, and often still do, if they think they can get away with it ;-) Paul On Sun, 29 Mar 2015 12:01:39 +0100, Nivard Ovington via <mariners@rootsweb.com> wrote: >Hi Peter > >The pertinent part of the passage from the National Archives is "Any >record made" > >There are many pitfalls in the system > >Deaths at sea (and other life events) were supposed to be recorded and >passed on but often they were not or were subsequently missed > >In theory if a man died at sea, it should not be in the local indexes >but in a separate deaths at sea index, again in theory if its in the >local index he died onshore or his body was washed up > >But as in many things, where humans get involved they have great >capacity to make a pigs ear of it > >Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) > >On 29/03/2015 11:42, Peter Enlund wrote: >> Dear List >> >> From the National Archives web site >> >> Any record made of a birth or death at sea from 1837 onwards was sent >> directly to the General Register Office and recorded in the Marine Register. >> >> I have men who died at sea and got the certificate from the GRO. In >> addition, there are registers at TNA of deaths at sea, apart from the >> index but theses records in BT156 and BT157 do not extend beyond 1890 >> >> I suggest that there is nothing unusual about the death being recorded >> in the local registry >> >> For more on this, the book My Ancestor was a Merchant Seaman is >> the authoritative reference on these and should be in local genealogical >> society libraries >> >> Regards, Peter in Melbourne > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MARINERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message 50° 33' N, 2° 26' W http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval.html
Hello from Australia My ancestor George Castle born Kent 1821, died NSW 1882 was a seaman on the following voyages. If anyone has information of these voyages, the masters, cargo or the boats etc could they contact me privately. I have crew lists for the voyages marked * which I am able to share. DATES SHIP MASTER DESTINATION NOT KNOWN Planter 20/10/1843 11/09/1844 Bristol * Joseph Cowart Gibraltar, Cape Coast, Sierra Leone 28/10/1844 Jane * George Blenkinsop Nevis, St Kitts; Gibraltar and Cadiz 26/05/1845 11/10/1845 Regina * John Forman Trinidad, Dominica 24/10/1845 08/05/1846 unknown 21/10/1846 17/02/1847 Jane 27/02/1847 11/05/1847 Higginson William Hogg Barbados 25/05/1847 11/10/1847 Calypso * John Eltringham Jamaica 08/11/1847 05/06/1848 Calypso * John Eltringham Jamaica 24/06/1848 27/11/1848 Calypso * John Eltringham Jamaica 13/12/1848 09/04/1849 Mary Shepherd * John A McDonald Cape Town, Port Phillip Many thanks John Webster Perth Australia