Record offices holding crew lists
When the documents were dispersed In the 1970s, a 10% random sample of crew lists was retained at The National Archives (TNA) and a further 10% - the years ending in 5 - was retained by the National Maritime Museum (NMM).
 
Each record office was then offered the lists for its local ports of registration.
 
Some record offices have nearly complete holdings - for example, the Isle of Man. Others have only a sample of the lists and the basis of the sample varies. In some cases, it is particular years - for example Gwent holds records for years ending in 9, a 10% sample. Others, such as Devon, have one or two lists for every ship registered at the port - an even smaller sample.
 
Some record offices refused the crew lists - for example the only records held for Scottish ports are some fishing lists at Aberdeen and a small sample at the National Archives of Scotland.
 
The rest of the lists, including the remainder for record offices which took samples, are now at the Maritime History Archive (MHA) in Newfoundland.
 
The table below shows the 48 repositories which are known to hold crew lists. Please let us know of any more which come to light!
 
The columns of the table show:
  1. the name of the repository, with a link to their web site (the links open a new window - if you wish to open the link in this window, please click on the symbol next to it).
  2. the port(s) of registry for which they hold lists, and
  3. the start year and
  4. the end year which the lists cover, though the runs may not be complete
  5. notes of any access issues and indexes available