Captain Thomas Ayre - Cunard service

[MaryA]

Hi all, just unearthed a lovely little mystery about an ancestor.

Born 21 October, 1840 in Stepney, London, baptised in May, 1849 in St Mark's, Liverpool, he lived in the Toxteth area until 1861, where he was with his family at 14 St Bride Street, Mount Pleasant occupation given is Seaman Merchant Service.

After 1861 he was missing until recently when I obtained copies of two Wills which turned out to be his and his wife's. He must have returned to Liverpool and married latish in life, Q2 1884 to Annie Williams and became Licensed Victualler and Publican of the Globe Public House, Church Lane.

Sadly he died on 3rd March, 1891, aged 50 and Annie the following year, but her obituary gave me a wonderful clue - "widow of the late Captain Thos Ayre, formerly of the Cunard Service".

So of course now I am wondering if anybody knows where I can find any searchable Cunard Archives - preferably without having to take a trip to Kew.

[Sue H]

I would be interested in this as well. My granddad was with Cunard in the 50's and not been able to find anything. Cunard werent very helpful unfortunately. And as a visit to Kew is out of the question at mo I am stuck. So will watch this space

[MaryA]

Just dabbling on Ancestry and I believe I have found some entries in the database UK and Ireland, Masters and Mates Certificates 1850-1927, correct birthdate of 1840, issue dates in 1859, 1861 and 1867, if it is him then his Certificate Number is 21470.

[MaryA]

Oh beautiful!!! Certificates of Competency - Second Mate, First Mate, and Master - and the address confirms it is the right one! - so excited.

Also Agreement for the ship Russia, including how much he was discharged with at Liverpool, (Glasgow, Scotland, Crew Lists 1863-1901) - and also states which ship he was on last, the Calabria - oh is this traceable I wonder?

[Tina]

Hi Mary, have copy/pasted your posting to a friend.
Fingers crossed for you.

[MaryA]

Thanks Tina, this is doing well, just added to my post above.

[MaryA]

For Sue, VERY useful site about the ships. http://www.norwayheritage.com/

[Katie]

University of Liverpool have some Cunard Archive.

http://archiveshub.ac.uk/contributors/u ... rpool.html

Kathyd

[Hilary]

There are some crew lists on Find my past. The Archives at the Maritime museum might be worth visiting you have to make an appointment I believe.

My understanding from one of the Southport group is that you trace backwards and forwards via the crew lists and it is very time consuming. It would be worth looking on the National Archives website for one of their research guides about Merchant seamen for the time you are interested in.

[MaryA]

Thanks Katie, I've written to that Department to ask whether they might have anything available for personal research, awaiting a reply, will post what they say as it could be useful to others.

And thanks Hilary, yes I remember Shelagh's talk and that it was quite a confuddle but she managed a lot, I was hoping that more information might be available online by now as I don't know whether I'll manage a visit to Kew as she did. I have checked the index on Findmypast Crew Lists but didn't notice anything that jumped out and shouted "this is your guy", but as I hope to be in the Record Office tomorrow I'll take a closer look.