I spent many fruitless hours searching for one of my wife’s ancestors, William Lawrence, but could find no record of him in the early Census returns. The listings only referred to his wife who was described as ‘married’ and her children. Where was William?

It was only when I sent for the son’s marriage certificate that I discovered that his father - William Lawrence from Toxteth Park - was a ‘master mariner’ and was probably serving at sea during the time the ‘41 and ‘51 Census was taken.

These early returns do not list men at sea although the ‘51 return does list everyone’s occupation who was at their home address on the night of the Census.

The first evidence in the Census returns for my William Lawrence was found in the 1861 return which, by good luck, lists him at his home address in Warwick street, Toxteth. His occupation is described as ‘captain, Royal Navy.’

To find out information about the careers and service of seafarers it is necessary to trawl a vast resource of information.

There are records available of men who served in the Royal Navy and the merchant fleet.

For the Royal Navy the National Archives site gives a breakdown of every possible naval resource: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
A very good site giving an overview of all the records available is http://www.barnettresearch.freeserve.co.uk/mainaval.htm

One of the main sources of information for the genealogist are the annual Crew Lists and there are a number of sites where you can find information about these, e.g:
http://www.parishchest.com/en-gb/dept_1749.html
http://www.pbenyon1.plus.com/Nbd/Index.htmlThe British Library: http://www.bl.uk/collections/social/srvlist5.html
The Liverpool Record Office has information in an on-line leaflet: http://archive.liverpool.gov.uk/leaflets/RO_leaflet_15.pdf

For Merchant Navy ancestors a great resource is the Through Mighty Seas site http://www.mightyseas.co.uk/ which covers the maritime history of the merchant sailing ships of the North West of England and the Isle of Man, through the period from the late 1700s until the First World War. There are histories of more than 900 ships, indexed by region, and over 100 historic photographs.

The history covers the area from Lancaster to the S of Morecambe Bay, and the Cumbrian coast to the Solway Firth, and includes the Isle of Man. The main content is individual ship histories, but also included is information on shipbuilders, shipyards, lifeboats, sea captains and mariners, shipping lines and other maritime history information. The site deals only with merchant sailing ships, but there are links to other sites covering steamships and the Royal Navy.

Merseyside maritime museum http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/ gives an overview of all the facets of life concerning Liverpool’s connections with the sea. Its archives link contains information on ship registers; extensive records of the port of Liverpool, local trade associations, shipping companies, merchant houses, port services, charities and ship builders. It also has seafarers' personal and family papers plus a wealth of plans, photographs and oral tapes.

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