This blog post offers links and notes related to my live webinar presentation for ShipIndex.org users on October 18, 2023. It will be updated slightly after the presentation, to reflect any changes or discussions during the presentation. It’s not intended to represent all of the comments shared during the presentation, but instead to be a place where links and notes are stored, for the benefit of attendees.

Section 1. Using vessel research in genealogy – how it can be applied, and how it can benefit genealogy research

Important: Know what a resource can do: ShipIndex cannot really help you find information about a person, and the large genealogy databases cannot really help you find information about vessels. Use the right tool for the job!

Vessel research can help you find an image of the ship an ancestor emigrated on, or perhaps a picture of the ship that grandparents took their honeymoon on.

For ancestors who served in the military, vessel research can help you learn about their experiences: if you know what ship they were on, and when, then researching the history of the ship will help you learn more about their experiences.

Vessel research might help you find a diary or logbook kept by someone who was on the voyage that your ancestor was on.

Section 2. Using vessel research in maritime and other history – not just genealogy

Research in local history can help learn a great deal from maritime history – researching the vessel, rather than the people on it. Perhaps you’re researching a schooner that’s been in the community for 70 years, but must be removed – such as Equator, in Everett, Washington.

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Or you want to research the history of a vessel whose wreck was just discovered in Lake Superior:

Find “Huronton” in ShipIndex.

Section 3. Using ShipIndex.org as a tool, among many, for doing this work

Introduction to ShipIndex, what it can and cannot do; comparing the free database and the subscription database.

‘Cards’ are used to differentiate between ships with the same name, and to bring together different names for the same ships. How does this work?

Some important details on searching within ShipIndex:

• Remember that if you have a short ship name, like “James” or “Wasp”, there’s likely a whole set of other ship names to explore. The search returned an ‘exact match’, and if you click on “See other matching ships”, you’ll see many more with the ship name in it.
• If that’s overwhelming, you can narrow down your search to only the ship name field, by searching "@ship_name james“, for example.
• To limit a search to names that start with a term, use the carat (“^”) character, for example: “^james“
• See other advanced search feature on our help page.

Section 4. Other options for vessel search, beyond ShipIndex

There are many ship registers available; not all are included in ShipIndex.org, since acquiring a list of their content can be quite difficult (or impossible!). Some examples:

• Lloyd’s Register of Ships Online (British, 1764-1998)
• Australian Maritime Safety Authority registry (Australian, current)
• Ship Registers of New Bedford, Massachusetts (in Internet Archive, 1796-1850)

Section 5. Ways of searching the free web most effectively

When using Google, try the “AROUND” function, with the vessel type – so, for example, “constellation AROUND(5) sloop-of-war” – very different results from just “constellation“!

Use citations from Wikipedia to discover great sources about those ships that have Wikipedia entries.

Section 6. Finding the books and journals you’ve identified

Using WorldCat.org to locate libraries that own a particular title – but consider the many challenges that come with searching WorldCat. It is not particularly reliable anymore. It’s very difficult to determine what library has a particular journal (ie, magazine) that you want. Become friends with your interlibrary borrowing partners! (And be sure to support them!)

Searching for manuscripts: During the session, I discussed the challenges of finding manuscript resources that are mentioned in WorldCat but list no location. This post from 2014 shows how to find the actual location of the manuscript collection, by searching the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections, or “NUCMC” (pronounced “nuck-muck”). The WorldCat interface has changed in the past ten years, but the underlying content, and issues around it, remains. I don’t know why WorldCat doesn’t show the location of these items, but it doesn’t. The post explains how to get around that.

Section 7. Searching for historical newspapers online – a great tool for learning more

See this list to locate digitized historical newspapers.

The Ohio Memory project includes lists of, and links to, many Ohio newspapers — most 19th century ones come from the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America project.

If searching is possible, certainly give it a try, but many interfaces do not have good search functionality. Conversion to text can also be very bad, which limits searching.

For an amazing interface and project, see the remarkable California Digital Newspaper Collection. I’ve become slightly obsessed with correcting content here, and I’ve discovered that the San Francisco Call has numerous listings of vessel arrivals and departures across the West Coast.

Section 8. Using University Libraries to do further research (APPROACH #1 – with database access)

Many – but definitely not all – academic libraries will allow visitors to enter and use their databases. When librarians sign contracts to provide access to these expensive databases, we try to ensure access for “walk-in” users – for anyone who comes in to the library. This will especially be true for public academic libraries. If you have an academic library near you, ask if you can use most of its resources as a walk-in user.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers is a valuable resource when searching newspapers. Others include Accessible Archives, NewsBank, and more. In ProQuest, try using “NEAR” function: so, “monongahela NEAR oiler“. (Use NEAR/#, where # is the number of words. NEAR without a number defaults to 4 words.)

Section 9. Using University Libraries without access, from afar – it’s still doable, sort of! (APPROACH #2 – without database access)

“Discovery Layers” are a tool for searching much (but definitely not all) subscription databases, all at once. Content from many subscription databases is pre-indexed and users can search a lot of databases all at once, similar to using Google.

There are two main companies who offer Discovery Layers: ProQuest (in their Ex Libris division) and EBSCO. Each discovery layer does NOT include the content from its competitor. Since ProQuest has superior coverage of historical newspapers, find a major research library who uses the Ex Libris CDI and also allows you to search their discovery layer without logging in. This site shows which of the largest US & Canadian libraries use which discovery layer. Use a library in the “Ex Libris CDI” section because they will include ProQuest databases in the discovery layer. Select a university, then click on “Library Web Site,” and find the place to start searching.

Not all libraries will allow you to search without logging in, so if one doesn’t, try another. Yale will, for example, so they’re a great place to start. In the Yale interface, you can even narrow it down to just newspaper articles. BUT BUT BUT BUT — and this is important — you CANNOT get to the article itself, at least not here! Discovering that the article exists, however, might be incredibly valuable.

For more information about historical newspapers in a certain state or city, consider looking at the LibGuides about newspapers in the state or province at the largest university library, or the state library, for that state or province. For example, OSU, or State Library of Ohio.

Section 10. Searching for journals and newspapers

What do you do if you’ve found an article, or a journal, that isn’t available at the library near you? Your best option is probably interlibrary borrowing, but there are other options, as well.

Section 11. Conclusion.

I believe that vessel research can improve your family history, and the story you tell in your genealogy. Some of it might just be “adding leaves to the tree” — finding images of ships that were tangentially connected with your family story, and look good in a document or book you create. Others will directly inform your understanding of your ancestors’ lives, such as by learning about the battles those on board a warship (including your ancestor) during World War II, or during another conflict.

I hope that learning a bit about some ways of doing some of this research might be useful and helpful to you.

OK, so “recently” isn’t necessarily accurate here; I think that this list covers content added in the past year, actually. We are always adding content to ShipIndex.org, but sometimes it’s slow going. So here’s a list of the content that has been added since my last content post,

New content:

• Bunting, William Henry. Sea Struck. Thomaston, Maine: Tilbury House Publishers, 2016.
• Cairns, Lynne, and Graeme Henderson. Unfinished Voyages : Western Australian Shipwrecks, 1881-1900. Nedlands, W.A.: University of Western Australia Press,, 1995.
• de la Pedraja, Rene. A Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Merchant Marine and Shipping Industry: Since the Introduction of Steam. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994.
• Dick, H.W. Beancaker to Boxboat: Steamship Companies in Chinese Waters. Canberra: Nautical Association of Australia, 1988.
• Dick, H.W., and S.A. Kentwell. Sold East: Traders, Tramps, and Tugs of Chinese Waters. Melbourne: Nautical Association of Australia, 1991.
• Greenhill, Basil, and Julian Mannering. Inshore Craft: Traditional Working Vessels of the British Isles. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing, 2013.
• Greenwood, John Orville. The Fleets of Cleveland-Cliffs, Detroit and Cleveland Navigation, Traverse City Transportation and the Hawgood Family (Fleet History Series, Vol. 6). Cleveland, OH: Freshwater Press, 1998.
• Greenwood, John Orville. Greenwood’s Guide to Great Lakes Shipping 2017. Boyne City, MI: Harbor House Publishers, 2017.
• Greenwood, John Orville. Namesakes, 1920-1929. Cleveland, OH: Freshwater Press, 1984.
• Greenwood, John Orville. Namesakes, 1956-1980. Cleveland, OH: Freshwater Press, 1981.
• Greenwood, John Orville. Namesakes 2000. Cleveland, OH: Freshwater Press, 2000.
• Greenwood, John Orville. Namesakes of the 80’s, Volume II. Cleveland, OH: Freshwater Press, 1984.
• Haskew, Michael E. Aircraft Carriers: The Illustrated History of the World’s Most Important Warships. Minneapolis, MN: Zenith Press, 2016.
• Hill, Frederic B. Ships, Swindlers, and Scalded Hogs: The Rise and Fall of the Crooker Shipyard in Bath, Maine. Lanham, MD: Down East Books, 2016.
• Ingpen, Brian D. Unicorn: Navigating New Frontiers. Vlaeberg, South Africa: Fernwood Press, 2003.
• Jaffe, Walter W. Heritage of the Sea: the Training Ships of Maine Maritime Academy. Palo Alto, CA: Glencannon Press: Maritime Books, 2000.
• Jordan, John, and Robert Dumas. French Battleships 1922-1956. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2009.
• Jordan, John, and Jean Moulin. French Cruisers, 1922-1956. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2013.
• Kimber, Stephen. Sailors, Slackers and Blind Pigs: Halifax at War. Toronto: Anchor, 2003.
• Lille, Sten, and Lars Gronstadt. The Finnish Deep-water Sailers / Suomen valtameripurjehtijat / Finlands djupvattenseglare. Finland: Etela Suomen Kustannus Oy, 1981.
• Macpherson, Ken, and Ron Barrie. The Ships of Canada’s Naval Forces, 1910-2002. St. Catharines,Ontario: Vanwell, 2002.
• Maginley, Charles D., Ron Barrie and Bernard Collin. The Canadian Coast Guard Fleet, 1962-2012. Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia: Long Hill Publishing, 2014.
• Maginley, Charles D., and Bernard Collin. The Ships of Canada’s Marine Services. St. Catherines, Ontario: Vanwell Publishing Ltd., 2001.
• McKee, Eric, and Basil Greenhill. Working Boats of Britain: Their Shape and Purpose. London: Conway Maritime Press, 1997.
• Miller, William H. Picture History of German and Dutch Passenger Ships. Mineola, NY: Dover Publishing, 2002.
• Mystic Seaport Museum and New Bedford Whaling Museum. British North American Whaling Voyages: A Database. Mystic, CT: Mystic Seaport Museum, 2020?.
• Mystic Seaport Museum and New Bedford Whaling Museum. French Offshore Whaling Voyages: A Database. Mystic, CT: Mystic Seaport Museum, 2019.
• Pavlov, A.S., and Norman Friedman. Warships of the USSR and Russia, 1945-1995. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1997.
• Preston, Antony. The World’s Worst Warships. London: Conway Maritime Press, 2002.
• Schauffelen, Otmar. Great Sailing Ships: An Illustrated Catalogue and History of 150 Extant Barks, Barkentines, Frigates, Schooners and Other Large Sailing Vessels Built Since 1628. New York: Praeger, 1969.
• Streater, R. A., and D.G. Greenman. Talbot-Booth’s Merchant Ships Volume 2. New York: Nichols, 1978-79.
• Streater, R. A., and D. G. Greenman. Talbot-Booth’s Merchant Ships Volume 3. New York: Nichols Publishing Company, 1979.
• Tall, J. J. Submarines & Deep-sea Vehicles. San Diego, CA: Thunder Bay, 2002.
• Tredrea, John, and Eduard Sozaev. Russian Warships in the Age of Sail, 1696 – 1860: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing, 2010.
• Williams, Greg H. World War II U.S. Navy Vessels in Private Hands: the Boats and Ships. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2013.

As you can see, it’s a lot of content, even if we haven’t been bragging about what we’ve added through the year. As always, please send a note to comments (at) shipindex.org if you know of a title that you think should be added to the database.

A few weeks ago I went through all of the online resources in ShipIndex.org, to see if they all worked. It’s not uncommon for interfaces and search structures to change, and the result is that URLs slightly change. Any change to a URL, however slight, will likely cause the link to break, however, so I wanted to review all of them, and fix the ones that I could.

In one instance, I thought that the resource had disappeared completely, but I got a very helpful reply from the folks running the site, I learned of the new URL structure, and was easily able to update those links. In another instance, I thought a different resource was gone for good, but after a bunch of searching was able to find it, and figure out an update. Some still need attention, and I’m still working on those.

Yesterday, however, I learned that some of the oldest links in the database, to Ship Registers and other resources at Mystic Seaport, no longer work. These worked when I checked two or three weeks ago, and have worked since they were loaded into the ShipIndex.org database in 2009, but not today.

The Research collection at Mystic Seaport has gotten an online overhaul, and the new online resources are in a different interface. While some like the new interface, and the old one certainly did need an update, it appears that we can no longer link directly to an entry for a ship. I’m checking with the staff at the library to see if that is, in fact, the case, but if so, I’ll have to take out about a million direct links to these ships. I’ll keep the ships in the ShipIndex database, because I can still say with certainty that these ships are mentioned in the resources at Mystic, but I won’t be able to take a user directly to the entries any more.

This has happened with other resources in the past, most notably (in my mind) the Ellis Island Ship Database. I find it frustrating, because I like providing direct links, and I think they’re easier for people to use and cite, but I guess it was done for a reason. In the past, one could save a URL, and use that to link directly to the resource. Now, you’ll need to repeat the search every time you want to get to that specific resource, and your citation will need to describe how to do the search, rather than just include the link to the page in question.

 

If I’m able to update these links to direct links at some point, I’ll certainly do so, but I doubt that’ll be possible.

ShipIndex.org is excited to announce our first publication(s)! We have three “Guides to Ships”, and each one introduces a different type of important vessel, with historic and modern images, and brief descriptions.

Each guide is a 12-panel, folded, laminated publication. They’ll hold up to rigorous use, and will be helpful in many different settings. They are each 9” by 4” when folded, and are a great size for slipping in your bag for the next trip to the port or the beach.

As an introduction, and for May 30 and May 31 ONLY, the guides are available at $2 off their regular price – for two days only, they’re just $5.95 a piece! A set of all three is available for $15.95, for the next two days only. On June 1, they’ll all return to their usual price. Standard shipping in the US remains FREE. Standard international shipping is an estimation of the actual shipping cost. And there’s no sales tax, except for residents of New York.

These are a great Fathers Day gift, though they won’t be at this price again. Stock up now!

 

The three guides are as follows:

Guide to Tall Ships: With a focus on square-rigged versus fore-and-aft-rigged ships, this guide explains terminology such as brigs, barks, barkentines, sloops, cutters, schooners, ketches, yawls, and more. It is illustrated with modern and historic photographs and paintings. The guide also has a map of significant maritime museums around the world.

Guide to Naval Ships: Highlights include a range of modern and historic naval ships, from battleships and aircraft carriers to patrol boats and cutters. The Guide to Naval Ships has images of modern and historic vessels from around the world, and particularly notes several naval museum ships.

Guide to Merchant Ships: This guide describes a wide range of merchant vessel types that one might see from shore, from oil tankers and roros (car carriers) to container ships and LNG carriers. Unusual ships, like orange juice carriers, livestock ships, and more, are also described and illustrated. Fishing vessels, ferries, and cruise ships round out the guide.

 

Each guide has a webpage associated with it, though as befitting the newness of the guides, the webpages aren’t yet complete.

Please check them out and let me know what you think. This is an introductory offer, and prices go back to the list price on June 1.

The Yale Center for British Art, in New Haven, CT, has two marine art-related exhibits coming up.

From Sept 15 to Dec 4, 2016, they’ll be hosting an exhibit titled “Spreading Canvas: Eighteenth-Century British Marine Painting“, which they say “is the first major exhibition to survey the tradition of marine painting that was inextricably linked to Britain’s rise to prominence as a maritime and imperial power, and to position the genre at the heart of the burgeoning British art world of the eighteenth century.”

Yale University Press will be publishing a fully-illustrated volume to accompany the exhibit.

At nearly the same time, and to complement the exhibit, the YCBA will host an exhibit titled “Yinka Shonibare MBE“, which will highlight the Nigerian artist’s work on Adm Nelson. The website describing the exhibit includes an image of Shonibare’s work, Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, but it’s unclear to me if that work will be present. I’m a little unclear on it — perhaps they’ll have a smaller version of the work, as the original is quite large, and is now permanently (I thought) installed outside the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

Both mentions come via Enfilade, an online newsletter for Historians of Eighteenth-Century Art and Architecture (HECAA).

It’s a few days late for his birthday, but this interesting page highlights the role of ships in many of Shakespeare’s plays. As the author writes, regarding the pirates who rescue Hamlet in his eponymous play, “Consider that without the intervention of the pirates, Hamlet would have ended up in England with his neck on a chopping block, and Claudius would have reigned unchallenged as King of Denmark.” And here’s a bit about the British sub HMS Shakespeare — plus, of course, the ShipIndex.org entry for ships named Shakespeare. The first links came from gCaptain’s Maritime Monday links for today.

Looking for a last-minute gift for a maritime historian or a genealogist?

Consider access to the nearly 3.4 million citations in ShipIndex.org!

You can give a genealogist three months of access to the premium database for just $22. Or give a historian access to the premium database for six months for $35. Or give a maritime history fanatic access for a year, for just $65! This is a one-time payment, via PayPal (and yes, you can use a credit card through the PayPal site).

To make it happen, send a note to gifts@shipindex.org. We’ll need the following information:

• The recipient’s email address
• When you’d like access to begin, and for how long

We’ll create a pdf certificate that you can print out or email to the recipient. It will include a username and a temporary password, plus information on how to access the database.

This can be a great gift, for any occasion — from a holiday or birthday gift to a retirement or ‘Thank You’ recognition.