Indexes to Seamen's Protection Certificate Applications and Proofs of Citizenship

Publication of this volume, the third in a series of indexes to early merchant seamen's records, completes the project of indexing all of the Seamen's Protection Certficate applications and related proofs of citizenship held by the National Archives in Washington, D.C. The three volumes make available to researchers a user-friendly finding aide to the names of almost 50,000 seamen who filed for a Seaman's Protection Certificate between 1796 and 1861 in 13 East Coast and Gulf of Mexico ports. This index covers a dozen ports with from 4,400 applications for the Port of New Orleans to 18 proofs of citizenship for the Port of New London, Connecticut. The two previous indexes were to 33,000 applications field in the Port of Philadelphia. Some of these records are in excellent condition; however, some suffer from neglect, and many are missing.

This volume provides a separate index for each port with those with the largest number of names first. A brief explanation of characteristics of each port and an example of an application or proof of citizenship precedes most indexes. The page numbers are annotated to indicate the port.

Taken from: Ruth Priest Dixon, Introduction to Indexes to Seamen's Protection Certificate Applications and Proofs of Citizenship, (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1998).