Crew lists in BT 98 at TNA for ship SHIRLEYWICK registered at Carlisle

Records of the crew of British registered ships date back to the 18th century, but the main run begins in 1835. All the crew lists for the period before 1861 are held at The National Archives (TNA) in series BT 98. The documents have been digitised (though not indexed) and the images are available on FamilySearch.

This page is mainly an index of the holdings at TNA for the period 1845 to 1856. There are also notes below on how to find records for the periods before 1845 and after 1856.

For more details of the records of seafarers and the crew lists for this period, see our page, here: Records prior to 1861

How to search for documents for a ship held at TNA

Use the search form to enter the name of the ship and select her port of registry from the list.

Then click

Reading the results

From 1845 to 1856

The first section of the page is an index of the crew lists for the period from 1845 to 1856. For these years, the series is sorted by year, by port of registry and then by ship's name. The TNA catalogue does not include details of the ships covered by each box (piece) and there is no guarantee that there are documents for a particular ship.

Our page returns a list of the pieces which are likely to hold documents for that ship and port, arranged by year. It shows the piece reference (for example BT 98/1234) with a link to the Discovery catalogue. This in turn provides a link to order the documents in advance of a visit to TNA or to order a copy of the document.

Images of these documents are available online via FamilySearch, though only with a FamilySearch account (free) at FamilySearch Centres or FamilySearch Affiliate Libraries worldwide. The results table shows the film(s) for that piece and provides a link to open the images (if you have access, as described). There are more details about FamilySearch images here: FamilySearch images

against a reference indicates that data from that reference is included in The Genealogist's name index (£) The Genealogist (£) for the 1851 records in BT 98 which was made by Family History Indexes.

Prior to 1845

There are documents in BT 98 going back to 1800 for some ports, but the catalogue arrangement is complicated, so we have simply provided a link to it so you can look for yourself. Our link uses the port name you have chosen, to give you start. Bear in mind also that some ports (Hartlepool, for example) only became ports of registry in or after 1845, so there will be no records for the port prior to that.

To be sure of covering all the possibilities, it would be advisable to make a careful search of the catalogue for the earlier part of BT 98 - ie the pieces up to BT 98/140.

These documents were included in the FamilySearch images and can be accessed via the FamilySearch catalogue page: FamilySearch catalogue pre-1856

1856 to 1860

In 1855 a system of official numbers (ON) for ships was introduced. From 1856 onwards the documents at TNA were sorted by the ship's official number and the year, not by port. The official numbers were not directly connected to the ports of registry so, from 1856 onwards, it is necessary to know the ON to find the BT 98 piece which might hold the documents (again, there is no guarantee that it will actually be there).

At the foot of the results page is a link which will take you directly to the CLIP search page to find possible ONs for ships of that name and port. The results provide further links to the BT 98 pieces covering that ON for each year.

These documents were included in the FamilySearch images and can be accessed via the FamilySearch catalogue page: FamilySearch catalogue 1856-1860

Data sources

The sources of the data are:

Please see the  CLIP data  page for more details on sources, the abbreviations we have used, and our acknowledgements.

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Crew list documents from 1835 to 1856

TNA reference Year(s) Port and ships' names FamilySearch film
BT 98/195   1835-1844Carlisle A-Z 8460472
Carlisle A-Z 8460473
Carlisle A-Z 8460474
BT 98/604   1845Carlisle A-Z 8395300
BT 98/877   1846Carlisle A-Z 8437516
BT 98/1185  1847Carlisle A-Z 8461173
BT 98/1528  1848Carlisle A-Z 8439184
BT 98/1848  1849Carlisle A-Z 8441622
BT 98/2128  1850Carlisle A-Z 8470265
BT 98/2431  1851Carlisle A-Z 8446945
BT 98/2865  1852Carlisle A-Z 8449940
BT 98/3289  1853Carlisle A-Z 8403102
BT 98/3688  1854Carlisle A-Z 8397436
BT 98/4108  1855Carlisle A-Z 8396050
BT 98/4410  1856Carlisle A-Z 8394815

Be aware. The links to the FamilySearch films will only work if you are at a FamilySearch centre or a FamilySearch affiliate library.

There may be more documents for the port than are shown in this list. See the link below

Crew list documents prior to 1857

Crew lists pre-1857 are held at TNA in BT 98 sorted by port, covering a range of years. There may be more documents for the port than are shown in the list above The link shows TNA's catalogue for this port.

Crew list documents after 1856

After 1856, the crew documents at TNA are filed by the ship's official number, not by name and port of registry.

After 1860, the documents could be at many different locations, again accessed by the ship's official number.

To find possible official numbers for the ship and track down the crew lists at TNA and elsewhere, you can search on the CLIP site using this link.

Be aware. The BT 98 catalogue does not detail the ships in each piece, so there is no guarantee that the documents for a particular ship will be found there.