In Harbour, or on boat in Harbour for Census night: where to find records?

[a chesters]

I have a couple of ancestors who were sailors.

In the 1841 census, one is missing totally, so I have to assume he was at sea, as he became a ships master and was voyaging to and from the Far East regularly.

The other, his brother was recorded in 1861 as "dwelling" at "On board the S. S. Rhone at Holyhead, Anglesey, Wales", along with two other engineers and 8 firemen

AC

[guest259648]

I have a couple of ancestors who were sailors.

In the 1841 census, one is missing totally, so I have to assume he was at sea, as he became a ships master and was voyaging to and from the Far East regularly.

The other, his brother was recorded in 1861 as "dwelling" at "On board the S. S. Rhone at Holyhead, Anglesey, Wales", along with two other engineers and 8 firemen

AC

AC Thank you so much.
I think sailors did/do 'dwell' on their boats, it's a good word. The boats are their home, psychologically.

My partner's late Dad was a Royal Navy sailor, he had to stop sailing because of age but he was never at home in his little flat, it was a torment to be permanently on land.

It's a pity that seamen can be 'missing totally' from our records, frustrating! However, the problems of recording all land-dwellers are almost insurmountable, so to find those on the seas was quite impossible. Shame, though, because their lives are so interesting - and we need them, for our family history tree!

D x

[guest259648]

You say Newcastle - presumably On Tyne?  What were your ancestors doing in the NE?

The only thing I can be sure of is that the baby's mother was in Newcastle. She was in Lancashire in 1868 and 1871 (births of a daughter and a son + census) but was in Newcastle for long enough between those years to give birth to a son there.
England had good rail connections and 3rd-class tickets.

You're right :-)
The National Railway Museum gives the pre-1914 '3rd class' charge for 100 mile train journey as 42p in today's money.

If only!

D x

[Rena]

I am not currently knowledgeable what local libraries provide, but they did used to provide free access to the British Library newspapers.

I could follow the progress of my OH's ship's captain by entering his name in the search box and found many entries.  The reason for this is that practcially every newspaper up until WWII published the daily Arrivals and Departures of every ship in all British ports and the entry would give the ship's name & also give the surname of the captain, plus where the ship had come from or was going to.    One time I thought I'd "lost" him because there were two captain's with the same surname and one day the ship's name I was expecting didn't show in the results.  At the time there were a few places to check (for free) who was captain of what ship and Lloyds shipping was one place. 

A few weeks ago, after a long absence, I went onto the British Newspaper website and found all procedures had changed.  Good luck to anyone who tries to find information, because I failed miserably with this new "enhanced" programme.