Tracing a Merchant Navy man

QJames is my 2x great-grandfather. He is also my brick wall. We know neither his birth date nor his parents’ names. What we do know is that he appears on the Merchant Marine Index in 1854. Various family members have his shipping discharges as follows: 4/11/1857 Nicholas Smith; 26/1/1858 Brilliant; 15/4/1858 Emma Dorina; 6/8/1858 Emma Dorina; 16/1/1859 Louisa; and 5/2/1859 Dolphin

Calculating his date of birth from the ages given on these he appears to have been born in 1840, which would tally with his registration. Mostly his place of birth is given as London, but not always. We think we have him on the Diligentea in the 1861 Census.

By 1864 he was here in New Zealand and on 15 November of that year he married Elizabeth Cocks. He was working as a lighter man in New Plymouth in the days before there was a harbour. In 1878 there was a very public and acrimonious split. It is amazing what newspapers printed back then! By that time they had 9 children and number 10 was on the way. There is the possibility that this last child was not James’. Elizabeth took her baby and went to Auckland with another man.

So James was left with all the children. He obviously got on well with the lady (Jennie Buck) who answered his advertisement for a person to care for his household because he fathered a further two children with her. By 1883 the oldest four boys had left home and James was the fireman on the coastal ship, Hinemoa. Jennie’s daughter died aged just four months and she had had enough. She packed James’ remaining children off to their grandfather, took her son and ran off with the butcher. Unfortunately the grandfather was unable to take care of the children and they were committed to the Industrial Schools, the equivalent of state care today.

We know James returned to England, probably as a crew member because he certainly didn’t have the funds to pay a fare, at least twice and possibly three times. This photo shows James (the younger man) and, we think, his parents and sister. It was taken by a Mr Sayer, 220 Mile End Road, London. We have dated this and other photos believed to have been gathered on one trip as having been taken between 1870 and 1874. Which means said parents must have been included in the 1871 Census.

And therein lies my frustration. So many possibilities for potential parents and a good selection of possible births. How can one single out which family is ours? I would be very grateful for any pointers as to where to look next. At this point, any straws gratefully grasped!

Grace Neal

Chasing an ancestor with a common name can be very frustrating, especially if you are uncertain about their date and place of birth. The only real way to deal with this is to make some assumptions, and then test them rigorously. The one saving grace in this case is that you know you are looking for a Merchant Navy employee because they left lots of records.

AInvestigate a seaman’s early career

Investigating a seaman’s early career may reveal clues to his origins or family. James’s first ship is described as the Nicholas Smith. I can’t find records of this ship anywhere, but there is one called the

Nicholas Smirk. Re-read your discharge paper and check the name. If you consult the Crew List Index Database by ship’s name www. crewlist.org.uk/data/vesselsalpha you’ll see that the Nicholas Smirk was based in Sunderland. In fact, there are also ships called Brilliant, Louisa, and Dolphin also based in Sunderland. I can’t find Emma Dorina, but check the original discharge record in case the name has been misinterpreted. Diligentia was also a Sunderland ship.

Order the crew list

You could get a copy of the crew list for Nicholas Smirk from The National Archives (TNA) https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk and it will tell you who else was on board. It should be filed under the ship’s official number (4669) in BT 98/4820. The crew list might include another member of the Neal family as James was only 16 or 17 years of age. It’s quite common to find brothers, cousins, a father, or an uncle on the same local ship. It will also tell you James’s previous ship, enabling you to get the crew list for that ship. Was it also based in Sunderland? You can keep working backwards in time like this, and check for family members on the crew and the home ports for the ships concerned.

Find a point of reference to search from

If we assume that James’s origins may lie in Sunderland in County Durham, and not London, then it gives us a new point of reference for finding his parents. As you know, first-born sons and daughters were often named after their grandparents, and you’re right: this was very common in the past. On that basis, you speculated that John and Elizabeth might be James’s parents. In the 1841 Census for County Durham, there is only one James Neal born in about 1840. He was three months old at the time of the census and his parents were – hey presto! – John and Elizabeth. Both were from Ireland, and the father’s name is written as ‘John O. Neal’.

Test your theory thorougly

You’ll have to investigate this theory thoroughly and see if it holds up, but I hope it works for you. Many ships did the Sunderlandto-london run in Victorian times, and the capital was a better base to work from if you were a seaman as it was a lot easier to find employment. This may explain why James eventually called London his home. SW