Those searching ancestors, British or Canadian, whom were held as prisoners during the war of 1812 are particularly fortunate in that a list of prisoners who had been held by the United States was compiled in 1818 and can be found under ADM 103/466.

Armed with this information it’s possible to take the search further, either to look up the action where they were taken.

The major Royal Navy actions can be found on this site; however what about a man or women taken off a merchant vessel? Again it’s possible to trace them, in this case the main source is Lloyds List for which there is and index.

This need not be the end of the search, it’s possible that they were repatriated in a prisoner exchange before the end of the conflict. A sample of these documents can be found under Exchange and Cartel.