Archives: Royal Naval service records Online

The records of seamen who joined the Royal Navy between 1853 and 1923 can now be searched and downloaded from DocumentsOnline, The National Archives' digital records service of UK.

The final batch of files being recently digitized, the collection has been now completed. This means that over 680,000 records on Royal Naval seaman are now available to search and download.

Many of the records reveal year and town of birth, names of ships served on and the period of time served in the Royal Navy. Even greater detail can be found in records from 1892 onwards, invaluable for those tracing their naval ancestors. Entries on occupation and physical appearance, such as hair and eye colour, height and tattoos can be found, and even notes made about 'character' and 'ability'.

The service records of Royal Marines (between 1842 and 1925 ) and Royal Naval Officers are also available from DocumentsOnline.