Early 1800's Naval records

[Clannessie]

Where would I look for any Naval records for someone born in Nova Scotia that joined the Royal Navy? I'm not sure if my Benjamin Murdock born about 1796 in Nova Scotia did or not but he ended up marrying in England and having 3 children there before ending up in Michigan in the US by the 1860 census.
Also if I have the right famly in Nova Scotia, his older brother was a Naval officer. Benjamin's cousin married Samuel Cunard of the Cunard Shipping.

Karen
So California

[Geoffers]

Royal Navy records for this period are individually indexed on TNA's catalogue
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/default.asp
try entering just a surname in field 1 (Word or phrase) and in the last field (Department or Series code) enter ADM29.

He could of course have been in the army - you can still use The Catalogue, in the final field try searching under WO - if you get lots of hits, narrow it down cacrrying out two searches, one on the surname with the code WO97 and a second using he code WO119.

He could also have been in the Merchant Marine which is more difficult, look at TNA's research guides
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/researchguidesindex.asp
Click on 'M' and then the relevant links prefixed 'Merchant Seamen' and 'merchant Shipping'
Geoffers

[Clannessie]

Thanks so very much for all the info!

Only thing I could find is this:

Scope and content Original page number: 23

James MURDOCK; Rank: Boatswain; Born: [Not Given]; Age on entry: [Not Given]; Dates served: 8 July 1805-30 September 1818; Date and Type of Application: Admiralty 15 February 1819
Covering dates 1817-1839
Availability Open Document, Open Description, Normal Closure before FOI Act: 30 years
Held by The National Archives, Kew

This might be the "older" brother. He had a brother named James born about 1791...making him about 14 when he entered the Navy. Does that seem right? What is a "boatswain"?

Also what does this part mean? Date and Type of Application: Admiralty 15 February 1819

Thanks again,
Karen

[Tederator]

Thanks so very much for all the info!

Only thing I could find is this:

Scope and content Original page number: 23

James MURDOCK; Rank: Boatswain; Born: [Not Given]; Age on entry: [Not Given]; Dates served: 8 July 1805-30 September 1818; Date and Type of Application: Admiralty 15 February 1819
Covering dates 1817-1839
Availability Open Document, Open Description, Normal Closure before FOI Act: 30 years
Held by The National Archives, Kew

.making him about 14 when he entered the Navy. Does that seem right? What is a "boatswain"?

Also what does this part mean? Date and Type of Application: Admiralty 15 February 1819

Thanks again,
Karen

Hi Karen, I have a record the same as this for my Great Grandfather who was in the Royal Navy from 1851 to 1864. It shows he joined at the age of 14, so that part would be right. A 'boatswain' would be a non commissioned officer who looked after the equipment....I think.
'Date and Type of Application" would be when it was placed in Admiralty records I should think.
Cheers
Ted.