Maritime marriages 1854-1972
About the maritime marriages
Here you can search 18,769 maritime marriage records for 37,538 people.
This is a varied collection of records from The National Archives, which contains vital information about your maritime ancestors' marriages. The records cover the period 1854-1972 and include many different record types from various TNA record series.
Find out more about the records included in this collection
What can a maritime marriage record tell me about my ancestors?
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
- Bride's name
- Date and place of marriage
- Children's names and dates of birth
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 marriages at sea records?
Most of these records are different to the marriages 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 marriages at sea. Some records of marriages 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 marriages and also between the maritime marriages and the GRO indexes.
The publication of the maritime marriages 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 marriages associated with seafaring occupations, not necessarily marriages which took place at sea. You'll find records of merchant seamen, as well as Royal Navy and Royal Marines, including the marriages 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 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
- Bride's name
- Date and place of marriage
- Children's names and dates of birth
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*.