TOP TIP
EXAMPLE SOURCES FORSEAFARERS
Officer and engine room crew, 1902
Searching for an ancestor with black or Asian ancestry can be complicated by the fact that personal names were sometimes spelled phonetically by the officials who completed records, and so can be inaccurate. This also means that there may be inconsistency of spelling for the same person across sources. Personal details might be omitted as well, or even guessed, if there was a language barrier.
Here are some key online sources where you can begin research into your ancestor’s seafaring life, but it’s not a comprehensive list:
CASE STUDY