Genealogy

Records of the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen, 1863–1921

The records of the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen consist of crew lists and agreements with seamen regarding wage rates, conditions of service and related information of ships, registered in what is now the Republic of Ireland between 1863 and 1921.

These records were deposited in the National Archives in 1971 and 1978 by the Board of Trade in Britain.

The shipping records contain much useful information not only for family and local history, but also for maritime, social and economic history.

The records include details of:

  • Crews: Name, age or year of birth, town or district of birth, last ship served on, port to which she belonged, date and place of discharge from previous ship, date and place of joining present ship, capacity in which he joined, if service discontinued, cause, date and place.
  • Ship: Name, registered number, port of registry, date of registry, owner’s name and address, dates and places of arrivals and departures.
  • Log: Date of event logged, occurrence situation by longitude and latitude, amount of fine or forfeiture inflicted.
  • Wages: Amount of wages per calendar month, share or voyage.
  • Provisions: Scale of provisions to be served to the crew each day given with weights per day for bread, flour, coffee, butter, water, beef, peas, sugar, tea, port.
  • Apprentices: Name, age, date of indenture, port of indenture, date of assignment, port of assignment.
  • Births: Date, name, sex, parents’ names, mother’s maiden name, occupation of father, nationality and last abode of parents.
  • Deaths: Of crew: name, agreement reference number, net wages paid. Of passengers: date of death, name, age, sex, occupation, parents’ names, cause of death.

The records have been digitised and are searchable free of charge on our Genealogy website by name, vessel name, departure port, date of event, age, town/county of origin, year of birth, year of death and place of death.

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