* Births at sea

[raywigz]

Hi
I have census records 1851 and 1861 that state Willian Frederick Kimber was born "at sea/ Bermuda" 1843
His father was a stonemason and with his wife Elizabeth they sailed to Bermuda. Pesumably William was born at sea.
His father died of yellow fever in 1844 and is buried in Bermuda. The wife and child returned to England and she remarried, hence the census records.
It was my understanding that births at sea should be recorded by the captain and sent to the Register General, for the Marine Register Book.
Has anyone knowledge of searching this source?
Is it on line, and can certificates be ordered?
I am trying to establish the ship and hopefully the list of passengers and anything else recorded in the log

Thank You

Ray Wigzell

[Jane]

Find My Past has some Births at Sea

Bt158

This series contains registers of the births of passengers between 1854 and 1890 compiled from ships' official logs of births, deaths and marriages of passengers at sea by the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen and its predecessor.

Bt334

Births of British and foreign passengers and seamen between 1891 and 1972.

But they don't go back far enough for you.

For earlier records you will need to look at National Archive collections

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help ... or-abroad/

I presume you have already checked

http://www.bmdregisters.co.uk/

[mjashby]

Ray,

You could try the free record searches available on the following link:

http://www.familyrelatives.com/post_sea ... =S&lmid=11

Note: FamilyRelatives.com is a commercial site, but has a number of free to search records, including many of the GRO Overseas Indexes, but you may have to register with the site (free registration - no subscription required) to see the results of the free searches.

Mervyn

[EDIT by Mike Tate: I've added FamilyRelatives.com to research:useful_research_web_sites|> Useful Research Web Sites.]

[raywigz]

Thnak you for the suggestions
It would appear that my only hope is the Marine Register as any record made of a birth or death at sea from 1837 onwards was sent directly to the General Register Office and recorded in the Marine Register. Unfortunately there was no obligation to keep records of births, marriages or deaths at sea before the mid-19th century according to the National Archives. So I may have a problem with 1843.

I cannot see any series ref. on the National Archives help pages to the location of the Marine Register. Would it be at TNA?

Thanks again

Ray

[mjashby]

Ray,

Just a shot in the dark, but is this him.

1843 Born at Sea June 17, Baptised July 30 Frederick William / Parents: William & Elizabeth Kimber
Baptism Place: Ireland Island

The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England; Admiralty: Service Records, Registers, Returns and Certificates; Class: ADM 6; Piece: Piece 434; Piece Description: Piece 434 (1826 - 1848)

(Image available on Ancestry Website)

Mervyn

[raywigz]

Mervyn

I think you are exactly right. Thank you very much.
I suppose, not enough lateral thinking on my part. Stonemason obviously employed by the Admiralty for work on the naval base or the prison, so the records would be in ADM.
Another bit to add to the family history
Thanks again

Ray

[AdrianBruce]

One of the most comprehensive articles, based on work by Anthony Camp, on miscellaneous overseas registers can be found at https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Britis ... _Registers - that link points to the section on Marine Registers. It is, however, more than somewhat complex, and comes with the warning that I am always dubious about the degree of coverage of certificates.

My understanding is that anything still in the possession of the GRO is not accessible by any means other than payment for a certificate. However, (a) some stuff was duplicated to start with - the linked paragraph suggests BT classes at TNA apply to some stuff. But also (b) the GRO had acted as a clearing house for some BMD reports that it was not mandated to act for. These were the Non-Statutory Returns and the GRO eventually rounded the whole lot up and sent it off to TNA (or equivalent).

Basically there is no easy means of sorting out where the data might be, other than sitting down and carefully reading through that article. But anything still with the GRO should be indexed in various places such as FMP. (Actually, even that's not true for some Army stuff....)