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Bransfield Surname Ancestry Results

Our indexes 1000-1999 include entries for the spelling 'bransfield'. In the period you have requested, we have the following 14 records (displaying 1 to 10): 

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Inhabitants of Stratford upon Avon in Warwickshire (1406-1535)
The Hospital of the Holy Cross was founded in 1269; in time this fraternity became a social and religious gild. 'The Register of the Gild of the Holy Cross, the Blessed Mary and St John the Baptist of Stratford-upon-Avon' was edited by J. Harvey Bloom, rector of Whitchurch, and printed in 1907. The register is a record of admissions to the gild, an account of the fines paid by new members, and the names of those in arrear. Each year's record usually starts on the Monday after Ascension Day (the sixth Thursday after Easter), when the new aldermen, master and proctors of the gild were elected, all duly named. Then follow the admissions to the gild, including payments for prayers and candles (lights) for the faithful dead; and the names of the sureties for these payments. Interspersed with this are occasional proclamations and memoranda concerning the fraternity. A peculiarity of this publication is that the years given at the head of each page (e. g. 1502-3) are those of the regnal year (in that case 18 Henry VII) in which the Monday after Ascension Day fell. The regnal years of Henry IV, Henry VI, Richard III and Henry VII all started after that day in the calendars of 1399, 1422, 1483 and 1485; so the gild registers during those years actually cover the following year to that shown in this printed text (in that case, 1503-4).

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Inhabitants of Stratford upon Avon in Warwickshire
 (1406-1535)
Masters of Merchantmen (1822)
The Society for the Registry of Shipping was instituted in 1760, and published an annual register and supplement. The annual register consisted of an alphabetical list of ships surveyed for insurance in Britain and Ireland, together with an alphabetical supplement. The society maintained a Registry Office at which alterations and additions were notified, and members delivering their registers when called for had them updated and returned on the following or the ensuing day. Each ship was given a number within each letter of the alphabet: ships' names were not unique, so within each name a ship was identified by the name of the captain or master at the time of the last survey. Then abbreviations indicate the type of vessel (Bg, brig; Bk, barque; Cr, cutter; Dr, dogger; G, galliott; H, hoy; K, ketch; S, ship; Sk, smack; Sp, sloop; Sr, schooner; St, schoot; Sw, snow), and whether sheathed (s) and/or doubled (d) with copper (C) and iron bolts (I B) or over boards (W & C), patent felt (P F), copper fastened (c f), copper bolted (c b), or copper repaired (C rp) sometimes with a date, such as (18)18. The third column, reserved for masters' names, is not particularly wide; with short surnames, an initial will be given; but longer surnames omit the initials, and even longer surnames are abbreviated. It will be borne in mind that these are the names of the masters not (necessarily) in 1822, but at the time of the last survey. Often new masters had been appointed by the time of re-survey, and their names are added in slightly smaller type under the original master's names in the third column. In the fourth column is the tonnage: where there is a blank under the number this indicates that the ship had two decks; more often the letters S D (B) for single deck (with beams); D W for deep waist; S D W single deck with deep waist; B D W single deck with beams and deep waist. Underneath the entry may run references to recent repairs: Cl. clincher built; Drp. damages repaired; grp. good repair; len. lengthened; lrp. large repair; N. (new) B. bottom, D. deck, Kl. keel, Sds. sides or UW. upper-works; rb. rebuilt; rsd. raised; Srprs. some repairs; or trp. thorough repair. In italics, the timber of the ship is described - B. B., black birch; C., cedar; H., hazel; Hk., hackmetack; J., juniper; L. O., live oak; M., mahogany; P., pine; P. P., pitch pine; S., spruce; W. H., witch hazel; W. O., white oak. The fifth column gives the place that the ship was built. For foreign ships this may be as vague as 'Dutch' or 'French'; but nothing in this record specifically indicates the nationality of ship, master or owners, except that an A. under the owner's name indicates that the vessel was American property. The sixth column gives the year of the ship's age; a few were still sailing after 30 or 40 years. The seventh column gives the owner's name, abbreviated in the same way as the master's name. Where the master was the owner, the word Capt. will appear. With vessels owned abroad, the name in this column is sometimes that of the port of origin, not the surname of the owner. Where there has been a change of owner by the time of re-survey, the new name is put underneath in smaller type. The printer sought to avoid confusion by aligning names of ports to the left and surnames to the right, but that leaves longer names doubtful. The eighth column gives the feet of the draught of water when loaded. The ninth column shows the destined voyage for which the survey took place, with the port of survey abbreviated (Be., Belfast; Br., Bristol; Co., Cork; Cs, Cowes; Da., Dartmouth; Du., Dublin; Eh, Exmouth; Ex., Exeter; Fa., Falmouth; Gr., Greenock; Hl, Hull; Hn, Harrington; La., Lancaster; Lh, Leith; Li., Liverpool; Lo., London; Ly., Lynn; Mt., Maryport; Po., Poole; Ph, Portsmouth; Pl., Plymouth; Sc., Star-Cross; Tn., Teignmouth; Tp., Topsham; Wa., Waterford; Wn, Whitehaven; Wo., Workington; Ya., Yarmouth), and the letter C where the vessel was a constant trader between the two ports. The tenth column gives the classification of the vessel (A, first; E, second) and its stores (1, first; 2, second) and the year of survey, e. g. 09 for 1809, or, if surveyed during 1821, the month, e. g. 3 for March. Where the vessel has been re-surveyed, the classification letter and number will be repeated or revised in the final column. The sample scan is from the main list. This is the index to masters in the main list and the supplement.

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Masters of Merchantmen
 (1822)
National ArchivesBritish merchant seamen (1835-1836)
At this period, the foreign trade of ships plying to and from the British isles involved about 150,000 men on 15,000 ships; and the coasting trade about a quarter as many more. A large proportion of the seamen on these ships were British subjects, and so liable to be pressed for service in the Royal Navy; but there was no general register by which to identify them, so in 1835 parliament passed a Merchant Seamen's Registration Bill. Under this act this large register of British seamen was compiled, based on ships' crew lists gathered in British and Irish ports, and passed up to the registry in London. Each seaman was assigned a number, and the names were arranged in the register by first two letters of the surname (our sample scan shows one of the pages for 'Sm'); in addition, an attempt was made to separate out namesakes by giving the first instance of a name (a), the second (b), and so on. But no effective method was devised to prevent the same man being registered twice as he appeared in a second crew list; moreover, the original crew lists were clearly difficult for the registry clerks to copy, and some of the surname spellings appear to be corrupted. A parliamentary committee decided that the system devised did not answer the original problem, and this register was abandoned after less than two years: but it is an apparently comprehensive source for British merchant seamen in 1835 to 1836. The register records the number assigned to each man; his name; age; birthplace; quality (master, captain, mate, 2nd mate, mariner, seaman, fisherman, cook, carpenter, boy &c.); and the name and home port of his ship, with the date of the crew list (usually at the end of a voyage). Most of the men recorded were born in the British Isles, but not all (for instance, Charleston and Stockholm appear in the sample scan). The final column 'How disposed of' is rarely used, and indicates those instances where a man died, was discharged, or deserted his ship during the voyage.

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British merchant seamen
 (1835-1836)
National ArchivesBritish merchant seamen (1835-1840)
At this period, the foreign trade of ships plying to and from the British isles involved about 150,000 men on 15,000 ships; and the coasting trade about a quarter as many more. A large proportion of the seamen on these ships were British subjects, and so liable to be pressed for service in the Royal Navy; but there was no general register by which to identify them, so in 1835 parliament passed a Merchant Seamen's Registration Bill. Under this act a large register of British seamen was compiled, based on ships' crew lists gathered in British and Irish ports, and passed up to the registry in London. A parliamentary committee decided that the system devised did not answer the original problem, and the original register was abandoned after less than two years: the system was then restarted in this form, with a systematic attempt to attribute the seamen's (ticket) numbers, and to record successive voyages. The register records the number assigned to each man; his name; age; birthplace; quality (S = seaman, &c.); and the name and official number of his ship, with the date of the crew list (usually at the end of a voyage). Most of the men recorded were born in the British Isles, but not all. The system was still very cumbersome, because the names were amassed merely under the first two letters of surname; an attempt was made to separate out namesakes by giving the first instance of a name (a), the second (b), and so on. During 1840 this series of ledgers was abandoned, and a new set started with names grouped together by surname. BT 112/8

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British merchant seamen
 (1835-1840)
Insolvents (1842)
Insolvency notices for England and Wales: insolvency often caused people to restart their lives elsewhere, so these are an important source for lost links

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Insolvents
 (1842)
Irish Bankrupts (1842)
Bankruptcy notices for Ireland: bankruptcy often caused people to restart their lives elsewhere, so these are an important source for lost links

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Irish Bankrupts
 (1842)
Irish Bankrupts (1843)
Bankruptcy notices for Ireland: bankruptcy often caused people to restart their lives elsewhere, so these are an important source for lost links

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Irish Bankrupts
 (1843)
National ArchivesMerchant Seamen (1840-1844)
The Registry of Merchant Seamen, including fishermen, sought to identify individuals securely in this series of registers by assigning to each man a unique number, grouped together by surname, and then by christian name, whereas in previous registers names had been jumbled together under the first two letters of the surname. Each man's age and birthplace was recorded, together with any number brought forwards from previous registration, i. e. the number assigned to the man in the registers for 1835 to 1840. Then each voyage is listed, with his status (e. g. S for seaman, M for mate, &c.) on that trip, the identification number of the ship, the date, and then the name of the ship. In the event of it becoming known that a man had died during the course of a voyage, that information is written across the remaining empty columns. This volume (BT 112/9) covers mariners whose surnames start with Br (and McBr).

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Merchant Seamen
 (1840-1844)
National ArchivesSailors and marines awarded the Baltic Medal (1854-1857)
During the Crimean War, a British and French fleet entered the Baltic, and captured Bomarsund harbour and one of the Aland Islands (now part of Finland). Bomarsund is the sound between the islands and the Swedish island of Vardo; and at the fine harbour on Bomarsund, dominating the entrance of the Gulf of Bothnia, and indirectly that of the Gulf of Finland, the Russians had constructed a northern naval base, and this was destroyed in the attack. The British fleet taking part in the Baltic expedition comprised Her Majesty's ships Aeolus, Ajax, Alban, Algiers, Amphion, Archer, Arrogant, Basilisk, Belleisle, Blenheim, Boscawen, Bulldog, Caesar, Calcutta, Centaur, Colossus, Conflict, Cornwallis, Cossack, Cressy, Cruizer, Cuckoo, Cumberland, Dauntless, Desperate, Dragon, Driver, Duke of Wellington, Edinburgh, Esk, Euryalus, Exmouth, Falcon, Firefly, Geyser, Gladiator, Gorgon, Hannibal, Harrier, Hastings, Hawke, Hecla, Hogue, Imperieuse, James Watt, Leopard, Lightning, Locust, Magicienne, Majestic, Merlin, Miranda, Monarch, Neptune, Nile, Odin, Orion, Otter, Pembroke, Penelope, Pigmy, Porcupine, Prince Regent, Princess Royal, Pylades, Resistance, Retribution, Rhadamanthus, Rosamond, Royal George, Royal William, Russell, St George, St Jean D'Acre, St Vincent, Sphinx, Stromboli, Tartar, Termagant, Tribune, Tyne, Valorous, Volage, Volcano, Vulture, Wrangler and Zephyr. This is the medal roll of the naval and marine claimants who qualified for the Baltic Medal for service in 1854 to 1855. The medals were dispatched in batches from early 1857, the first batch being numbered B A 1, the next B A 2, &c.; then follows the destination (a place or, more usually, a ship) and the date of dispatch. Most of the medals had been sent by the end of 1857.

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Sailors and marines awarded the Baltic Medal 
 (1854-1857)
Insolvents (1857)
Insolvency notices for England and Wales: insolvency often caused people to restart their lives elsewhere, so these are an important source for lost links

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Insolvents
 (1857)
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