Podcast: Nineteenth century merchant seafarers and their records (UK)

Specialist knowledge of merchant seafaring is a boon when identifying men and women and interpreting their lives in one of the most sophisticated 19th and early 20th century sources increasingly used by family history researchers. This talk explains how a new website will help users understand and appreciate the potential of the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen record series BT99. Valerie Burton is Chair of the Maritime History Research Unit at the Memorial University in St John's, Newfoundland. Dr Burton researches and teaches maritime history. She combines an interest in the economics of shipping with an emphasis on gender, class and ethnicity and 'new historical' approaches to narrative and identity. Her long involvement in facilitating public access to the records of merchant seafarers came to fruition with the Maritime History Archive website which is the subject of this talk