British nationals married at sea 1854-1908
About the British nationals married at sea records
This search allows you to view the original records of the registers in which details of marriages on board ships were compiled. These records were completed by the captain of the ship, or another member of the crew.
These records are fully name indexed and the bride and groom's names appear on the same record.
The most consistent information available in the registers of marriages is the first name and last name of the parties concerned and we have used all of this information to create the searchable database of marriages.
Your results will usually show you the following information but please be aware that not all the fields are completed in all the records: groom's name, groom's age, groom's place of birth, groom's marital status, bride's name, bride's age, bride's place of birth, bride's marital status, date of marriage, ship's name, notes.
Find out more about these records in our knowledge base.
How to search the marriage records
We only need the last name of an ancestor to start searching these records for you. This is the only required piece of information, everything else is optional.
It's always best to start searching with basic information, like your ancestor's first and last name. If there are too many results, you can refine your search and add more detail.
You can click the 'refine search' button on the search results page to return to this search box and add more information.
If you know who your ancestor married
It's best to start with basic information, but if you know who your ancestor married you could use this to narrow down your search results.
Enter both partners' names in the relevant search fields and click the 'search' button. Findmypast.co.uk will only show you records that match both of the names you've entered.
If you know a woman's married name, but not her maiden name
If you know a female ancestor's married name, it means you actually know her husband's last name and her first name. It's easy to search findmypast.co.uk's marriage records with this information.
Here's an example:
Our ancestor's married name was Mary Fringe. We don't know what her maiden name was.
What we actually know here is a piece of information about Mary's husband and a piece of information about Mary. We know his last name was Fringe and that her first name was Mary.
You can therefore enter Fringe in the 'last name' field and Mary in the 'first name(s) of spouse' field, as the image shows below:
What a marriage record will tell you
These records will usually give you the following information, but please be aware that not all the fields are completed in all records:
- Groom's name, age, place of birth and marital status
- Bride's name, age, place of birth and marital status
- Date of marriage
- Ship's name
Can't find who you're looking for?
- Don't select a year range, or make the year range wider. The year you think your ancestors married may not be accurate, so you could be excluding relevant results.
- Keep the 'include variants' boxes underneath the name fields ticked. This means your search results will include spelling variations of the names you've entered.
- If your ancestor's name could be easily misspelled, try using a wildcard search. Just use a * symbol in place of a letter or multiple letters. For example, instead of searching for Jennings you could search for Je*ngs or *enning*.