United States Census Merchant Seamen

United States   U.S. Census   Merchant Seaman

The 1930 census was the first to include seaman on U.S.-flag merchant vessels. The merchant seamen schedules include name of vessel, owner and address, what port, name of seaman, state or country of birth, occupation, whether a veteran and of what war, and address of next of kin. The images or indexes are available at:


 * Ancestry.com. 1930 Census of Merchant Seamen (database on-line). (Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations, 2005). A subscription Internet site. Includes an everyname index, and images of the following:
 * 1930 Census of Merchant Seamen (College Park, Md.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002). M1932, RG 029, 3 rolls. Alabama to Indiana, Louisiana to New York (EDs 15-34 to 24-950) , New York (EDs 24-972 to 52-55) to Wisconsin, Correspondence, reports and records.

Uses. Researchers can use the census of merchant seamen to identify the company that employed a seaman, the port where he was listed, his age, marital status, birthplace, citizenship information, previous military service, and the address of relatives. These provide clues to find further employment, naturalization, and military records

A wiki article describing an online collection is found at:

United States, Census of Merchant Searmen, 1930 (FamilySearch Historical Records)