RootsChat.Com
General => Armed Forces => Topic started by: Trish1908 on Saturday 10 June 17 12:29 BST (UK)
-
Hi All
I am trying to trace more information about an ancestor James Barwick Skillings, bn Norfolk 1818. I believe he married a Mary Codling and I have found reference to his date of death "28 Sept 1852 - died in the sea off the coast of Holland".
I haven't been able to find out exactly what he was doing there and wondered if its worth trying to find out if he was on a ship. I've looked at lists of those lost at sea and also lists of ships lost but cant find any to match the date I'm after.
Any suggestions what to look at next?
-
He may well have been a fisherman rather than in navy.
Annette
-
Find my Past has a merchants seaman's ticket for a James Skillings dated 1845 MAY be your man.
Martin
-
The merchant seamans ticket for a James Skillings shows he is of Gunthorpe (Nottinghamshire).
No other details.
Annette
-
Before I get shouted at, just discovered there was a Gunthorpe in Norfolk too.
Annette
-
Found a more detailed entry for the merchant seaman indexed as James Skilling!
Says he was born at Gunthorpe 6/12/1818 (James Barwick Skillings was bc.1818, bp.1820 Briningham and his various siblings all shown as born Briningham so don't know where Gunthorpe comes from) - in 1845 shows when unemployed he resides at Monkwearmouth so clearly you man. However, does not mention the names of any ships he sailed on unfortunately.
Annette
-
Annette,
I suspect the record you have found is from the Register of Seaman's Tickets 1845-1854.
This would not give the name of any vessels sailed on, but would be expressed in digits giving the ships home port and rotation number. If this is the case, could you post the relevant digits or a copy of the record. If these can be interpreted then it may be possible to find the name of the individual vessels via logbooks and crew agreements in TNA series BT98.
SW
-
Hello Annette7 and Seaweed,
This post holds much interest for me as I have a great-grandfather who was active in the Merchant Navy or shipping.
Is it easy to find the information on someone like my great-grandfather?
I often was told by my Dad and aunt that their grandfather was in the line of shipping and went around the world few times (three times to their recollections). It was between late 1860s and late 1890s (I was not sure when he got home as he married my great grandmother in 1900).
I just wanted to find more to see where my great-grandfather went and so did my uncle.
I will follow your post to see how you find more information and see if both of you have any useful tips for other RCers to follow up on.
Thank you, Annette7 and Seaweed, for sharing this post.
Kind regards,
Tees
-
seaweed - the numbers on the Seamans ticket are as follows (nothing for years 1847-1850)
1845 - M 1060-92 6-45, CK 389-83 12-45, S 26-92 12-45, M1060-92 12-45
1846 - S 1056-92 12-46, 456-92 6-46, 143-93 6-46, 143-93 12-46, 76-92 12-46, 1301-92, 6-46
1851 Ch 3536-92 12-51, S 159-118 6-51, 181-92 12-51.
If anyone can make anything of that then good luck to them.
Tees - it's easy to check merchant seaman records on Find My Past - however, as shown here, with only a series of numbers on the seamans ticket it will take someone more experienced than me to decipher what they mean. It really depends on what you are able to find - I can remember in the past coming up with records that did show names of ships but from memory these were more recent records than the example on this thread.
Annette
-
Many thanks for posting the seamans ticket numbers for James Skillings. I did some more digging (Mainly on the guidance pages on the Nat Archives site) and think I have solved parts of it - i think the initial(s) are his rank/ job, so in 1845 he was Mate, Cook, Seaman and then Mate. I'm not sure on the next series of numbers, but think the one after that is the port (92 = Sunderland, 83 Rochester) and I think the final pair of numbers is the half of the year he was on that ship/ rank (eg 6-45 would be June 1845.
Happy to be corrected/ assisted if anyone knows otherwise, and I think the first set of numbers might be relating to the name of the ship??
Thanks again!
Trish
-
Annette,
Thanks for taking the time to copy the information.
If we take the first entry for 1845. He served as Mate (M) on a Sunderland registered vessel (port number 92) and the vessels port rotation number was 1060. The crew agreement was lodged with the port authority in June 1845. So it looks like he served on a coast trade ship. After that voyage, he served as Cook on a Rochester registered vessel with the port rotation number of 389. then as a seaman on a Sunderland registered vessel with the port rotation number 26. Finely back as Mate on the the Sunderland vessel PRN 1060
The key to finding out the vessels name is the port rotation number. Unfortunately, no key exists to link the PRN to a vessels name.
The only way to find this out is by trawling through the crew agreements for a particular year available by visiting TNA Kew. Series BT98, looking for him by name or PRN. Most of the vessels he served on were Sunderland registered so I would make a start there. There are 77 boxes in all, each containing approx 50 vessels. So there are are no quick fixes.
I attach the 1851 index's to give you an idea of the task.
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_ep=sunderland&_cr=bt%2098&_dss=range&_sd=1851&_ed=1851&_ro=any&_st=adv
Tees,
There was no official registration of merchant seaman between 1857 and 1913. The Merchant Navy began to register its seamen again in 1913, in the central indexed register, or Fourth Register of Seamen. However, the entries for 1913 to 1917 have not survived. If he saw service from 1918 FindMyPast may have records. What you are looking for is ideally the name and official number of his last ship. It may then be possible to back track on his previous ships via Crew Agreements but you need to be very lucky.
A small collection of C/A's are at FindMyPast. I don't know about "Ancestry" Majority of C/A's for 1881 are on line here
https://www.mun.ca/mha/crew-agreement-links.php
and for 1915, here,
http://1915crewlists.rmg.co.uk/
SW
-
Hi just been told that James Barwick Skillings (married to Mary Codling) is my great grandfather. Getting my family tree done at the moment.