Looking for records of a rating in the Royal Navy before 1853

• What do I need to know before I start?

  • Try to find out:

    • the name and rank of the person
    • the name of the ship the person served on
    • a date range to help focus the search

• What records can I see online?

  • Medal rolls (1793-1972)

    Search by name for information about the award of campaign, long service and good conduct medals in the Royal Navy medal rolls (ADM 171) using Ancestry.co.uk (£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.). These rolls do not usually contain biographical information.
    
    Digital microfilm copies of these records are also available to download and browse from our website free of charge.

• What records can I find at The National Archives at Kew?

  • Battle of Trafalgar database (1805)

    Search the Trafalgar ancestors database for information on a British officera senior member of staff in the armed forces or ratingA seaman ranking lower than an officer. These are the most junior class of seamen in the Royal Navy. who served in the Battle of Trafalgar. The search will give you the relevant National Archives document references.
    

  • Ships' musters and pay books (1667-1878)

    Search Discovery, our cataloguea search tool with descriptions of tens of millions of documents from the UK central government, law courts, and other national bodies, for a musteror muster roll: a list of people in receipt of pay or pay book for a particular ship to find lists of ratingsRating - a seaman ranking lower than an officer. These are the most junior class of seamen in the Royal Navy. serving on the ship (ADM 31 - ADM 39, ADM 41, ADM 115, ADM 117, and ADM 119). 

    From 1764 a man's age and place of birth should be included, but not always.

    Search below by name of ship, excluding HMS or other prefixes.

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  • Pension records (1789-1894)

    Search our catalogue by name for ratingsRating - a seaman ranking lower than an officer. These are the most junior class of seamen in the Royal Navy.' pension records.

    These include ratings' applications for admission to Royal Greenwich Hospital in ADM 73 (surnames A-M only) and the accompanying certificates of service in ADM 29. ADM 73/154-389 also contains Greenwich Hospital School applications for children, often orphans, of seamen.

    The dates given in the certificates of service books are the dates of issue of the certificates and do not necessarily cover all the service to date. If a Continuous Service (CS) or Official Number (ON) is given you should find further details in the Royal Navy ratings' service records 1853-1923.

    Search below by forename and surname (ADM 29, ADM 73).

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  • To access these records you will either need to visit us, pay for research (£there will be a charge) or, where you can identify a specific record referencea unique set of letters and numbers identifying a document in The National Archives, order a copy (£there will be a charge).

• What records can I find in other archives and organisations?

  • Records held locally

    Search the Access to Archives (A2A) database to find records held in local archivesregional archives, libraries, and museums.

• What other resources will help me find information?

  • Books

    Use our library catalogue to find a recommended book list.

    The books are all available in The National Archives' reference library. You may also be able to find them in a local library. You can buy from a wide range of history titles in our bookshop.

     

• The National Archives is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Related guides

• Births, marriages and deaths in the armed forces
• Royal Navy commissioned officers
• Royal Navy warrant officers
• Royal Navy ratings' pensions

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