Maritime births 1867-1960
About the maritime births
Here you can search approximately 38,990 records of maritime births.
This is a varied collection of records from The National Archives, which contains vital information about your maritime ancestors' births. The records cover the period 1867-1960 and include many different record types from various TNA record series.
Please note that some of the records in this series show births and deaths together on the same or consecutive pages – sometimes 'births' is handwritten in red on a deaths page.
Find out more about the records included in this collection
What can a maritime birth record tell me about my ancestor?
The information listed varies, but these records will usually include a combination of the following details:
- Child's name
- Date and place of birth
- Father's name and occupation or rank
- Mother's name
- Place of residence
These records are unique to findmypast.co.uk and could provide you with detailed new information to add to your family tree.
How do these records relate to the existing births at sea records?
Most of these records are different to the births at sea which are already on findmypast.co.uk, although some records are the same.
There has never been a mandatory single centralised register of births at sea. Some records of births at sea were deposited with the General Register Office, some with The National Archives, and others elsewhere. Some of the records in this series appear in multiple record sets, so there will be some duplication within the maritime births and also between the maritime births and the GRO indexes.
The publication of the maritime births means that there's more chance than ever before that you'll find you ancestors at sea.
It's important to note that these records are births associated with seafaring occupations, not necessarily births which took place at sea. You'll find records of merchant seamen, as well as Royal Navy and Royal Marines, including the births of children of Royal Marines which took place in and around their bases in Chatham and Plymouth.
If you can't find who you're looking for, it's worth searching these records:
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How to search the birth 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 the mother's maiden name
It's best to start with basic information, but if you know the maiden name of your ancestor's mother you could use this to narrow down your search results.
You can enter the maiden name in this box:
Findmypast.co.uk will show you records that list the maiden name you've entered, plus any matching records that have no maiden name recorded.
If the child's parents weren't married
Children born outside of marriage were often recorded with their mother's maiden name as a last name, even if they grew up using their father's last name.
You can search for both names at the same time by entering a mother's maiden name in the relevant box and ticking the 'search using maiden name as well as last name' option, as shown below:
Findmypast.co.uk will show you records matching either the last name or the maiden name you've entered.
What a birth record will tell you
The information listed varies, but these records will usually include a combination of the following details:
- Child's name
- Date and place of birth
- Father's name and occupation or rank
- Mother's name
- Place of residence
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 ancestor was born 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*.