Register of Seamen

Fisherman, Merchant vessels, Emigrant ships etc.

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David Lang
Posts: 202
Joined: Thu Aug 31, 2006 9:07 pm
Location: Glasgow

Register of Seamen

Post by David Lang » Mon Dec 10, 2007 9:05 pm

I have a relative , whom i have just discovered was a Marine Engineer.

Is it possible to search online to see if he was in the merchant navy or not, he was alive in 1956 and was roughly born in 1930.

Very unusual surname of Pronck

David
Lang/loynachan/oloynachan/Gillies/Scally/McIlchere- Argyll, Denovan/Rollo, Stirling/Burns-Stirling Mackie/Grant/Ingils/Campbell-Aberdeen,Stewart/Bell-Glasgow
Brown-Ardrossan/Dundonald, Gemmell- Johnstone/Partick
McKelvie-Arran/ayrshire

Russell
Posts: 2559
Joined: Sat Dec 24, 2005 5:59 pm
Location: Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire

Post by Russell » Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:22 am

Hi David

We have quite a few sea & seafaring resources on another thread

See viewforum.php?f=35

I'm currently working on a reorganisation of all the various threads in this part of the site but can't for the life of me remember which thread would be best.
Be prepared for a fairly massive browse though. There are masses of links.

Russell
Working on: Oman, Brock, Miller/Millar, in Caithness.
Roan/Rowan, Hastings, Sharp, Lapraik in Ayr & Kirkcudbrightshire.
Johnston, Reside, Lyle all over the place !
McGilvray(spelt 26 different ways)
Watson, Morton, Anderson, Tawse, in Kilrenny

Currie
Posts: 3924
Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2007 3:20 am
Location: Australia

Post by Currie » Tue Dec 11, 2007 5:07 am

Hello David,

With a name as unusual as Pronck (although perhaps you meant Pronk), and if they are England based, I’d be tempted to go through all the BMD index images at Ancestry, i.e. those subsequent to the FreeBMD coverage, and make a list of all events for that family, or at least for the period relevant to your research. There are a number of Pronk deaths on Ancestry’s 1984-2005 list. http://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/rectyp ... o_it=22305 Alternatively you could wait until next year when the G.R.O. indexes are due to come on line.

But to get back to your question. If information about him has been put on the internet, and you know his first name, a Google search for English language results for a unusual name should find it if it is there. You could also try an alternative search engine such as http://us.ixquick.com/uk/ As the information you’re after is so recent it’s less likely you’ll find it on a pay site such as Ancestry etc.

Also have a good look at the National Archives A-Z list of Research Guides. There are various categories of Merchant Seamen records under “M”. I guess a Marine Engineer would come under the Officer category.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cata ... ex.asp?j=1 It looks as though individual records weren’t kept for about 20 years after 1973.

Hope this helps,
Alan