Royal Navy Records

The History

The Royal Navy is rightly world renowned and for much of the past few hundred years has been one of     the largest Navies in the world.

To service that Navy many of our ancestors will have enlisted, been pressed or been drafted.

What records can you find?

The National Archives is the major source of Royal Naval Records.

Most records requite a personal visit although many personnel records are now online .

The service history of 700,000 seamen from 1853 to 1923 is available online although there is a charge of £3.50 per person to view the digitalised record.

The records are too exhaustive to list but they must be the first place to start.

An interesting record are the Lieutenants Logs ( often called Captains Log's) which were maintained for each vessel.

Everything of interest from journey, weather , docking, damage, discipline was included in the log.

All surviving logs are held in the National Archives.

*

The Maritime Museum at Greenwich is a  source of information although there is not as much family history information it has a vast amount of information of lifestyle and actions of the Navy through the ages.

*

The Navy List was published annually with lists of Officers of the Royal navy.

Internet Archive has several copies available to read online from 1848 to 1883.