Mark If he was born on board ship, there will be a record in the National Archives at Kew, which will be a better record than the passenger list, though you may need to find him in a passenger list first to establish which ship he was born on and when. The event would have been recorded in the ship's log and was supposed to be reported to the Registrar General of England and Wales, of Scotland, or of Ireland. I quote from the National Archives's website, at < http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/RdLeaflet.asp?sLeafletID=246>: "Births *Registers of births, marriages and deaths of passengers at sea *( BT 158<http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/DisplayCatDetailsGoto.asp?catref=BT+158&accessmethod=6> ) cover births for 1854-1890. *Registers of births at sea on British ships, 1873-1891 *( BT 160<http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/DisplayCatDetailsGoto.asp?catref=BT+160&accessmethod=6> ); these volumes record events reported to the RGSS under Merchant Shipping Act 1854 and Birth and Death Registration Act 1874, and onwardly reported to the General Register Offices for England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Those for England include births to foreign nationals. Search digitised images from registers of births, marriages and deaths at sea <http://www.bmdregisters.co.uk/> (BT 158<http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/DisplayCatDetailsGoto.asp?catref=BT+158&accessmethod=6> , BT 159<http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/DisplayCatDetailsGoto.asp?catref=BT+159&accessmethod=6> and BT 160<http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/DisplayCatDetailsGoto.asp?catref=BT+160&accessmethod=6> ) online at bmdregisters.co.uk. After 1890 the new series of registers are in the class *Registers and indexes of births, marriages and deaths of* *passengers and seamen at sea * ( BT 334<http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/DisplayCatDetailsGoto.asp?catref=BT+334&accessmethod=6> ). The information given in these registers is as follows: - births: name of ship, official number, port of registry, date of birth, name, sex, name of father, rank or profession or occupation of father, name of mother, maiden surname of mother, father's nationality/birthplace and last place of abode, mother's nationality/birthplace and last place of abode The registers cover the period 1891-1960 and there are indexes arranged both by ships' names and individuals' names. Entries in the indexes in red ink refer to passengers; those in black ink to crew." The online searching facilities for births at sea on findmypast only cover the BT160 records and so stop at 1890; I don't think the post-1890 records (BT334), which are the ones you would be interested in, are searchable online, so it might be necessary to find someone to look in them at Kew for a birth around 1912. Baptisms sometimes took place on board ship too, but I don't know how you would search for them. Hope this helps Geoff On 10 August 2010 08:58, Mark Mann wrote: > > I have been trying for sometime to get passenger lists for arrivals in Cape > Town for March to June 1912. I have found a couple of sites that have > passenger lists for every year but 1912 for some reason. Apparently my > maternal grandfather (George Carmichael) was born on board a ship en route > from the UK (they were Scottish, but may have left from Southampton, > according to someone on Scotfam.com, who said 2 scottish Carmichael ladies > (Mrs. and Miss) left there on 9/3/1912, but could not provide more info). > His date of birth was given to me as 19 May 1912 and seems close, judging > by > his age written onto my mother's birth certificate. > > I'm not 100% certain he was born on the ship, as that info was given to me > verbally by my father, who was gravely ill at the time. Can anybody help > with that type of info? I've tried checking baptisms etc in Cape Town > church records, but no luck so far. I think they were methodists, as that > is how my mother grew up, if that helps. > > I have no idea what George's parents' names were, or if he had siblings, or > where in Scotland they came from, so I think the passenger list is a good > place to find out. > -- Geoff Chew [email protected]