G'day Debbie You say that Eliza was listed as a Sailor's wife in 1881 & 1891. To me this would indicate the Merchant Navy. On the Census records, if you see "Sailor", "Mariner" and of course "Merchant Seaman", try the Merchant Navy first. If you see "Seaman" by itself, then try the Royal Navy first. My experience of the census also suggests that Fisherman were listed as Fisherman not Sailors. Records for Merchant Seaman are held by the Registrar General of Shipping and Seaman, Llantrisant road, Llandaff, Cardiff CF5 2YS, Wales. The key to much of the shipping records is to know the name of the ship and year on which your ancestor served as a crewman, particularly for the earlier records. Over 70% of the old Crew Agreements are now held by the Maritime History Archive, Memorial University, St John's, Newfoundland. Similarly if you see "Pensioner", then it refers to retirement income for Service Performed and as such points to the Royal Navy (Greenwich Pensioners), British Army (Chelsea Pensioners) and other services such as Trinity House. The census refers to retirees living on investment income as "Annuitants". (Today, we are far too casual in the use of language and consequently can easily mis-understand the records about our ancestors). Passengers and crew on ships enumerated on the British 1861 census have been indexed. The index is available on microfiche through the Mormon libraries and consists of eight fiche (?) containing about 120,000 names in full alphabetical order. Cheers David Perth, WA (that's Western Australia, the real WA !) ----- Original Message ----- From: <DMHINEY@aol.com> To: <ORKNEY-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, July 22, 1999 12:42 AM Subject: [ORKNEY-L] Sailors from Stromness > Hello All! I'm looking for information on a George Will who married a Eliza > Sclater Millar in Stromness 1871. The 1881and 1891 census lists her as a > sailors wife and George is not mentioned. I assume this means he was out to > sea at the time of census. I tried looking him up under royal navy on 1881 > census but did not find him! > Does anyone know where I might look for list of sailors from stromness? > Could he have possibly been on a merchant type ship? Could sailor mean he > was a fisherman? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!! > > Debbie > > ______________________________