General Register Office
and some other sources of records from abroad.
Registration of births, marriage and deaths in England started in 1837. Copies of certificates can be obtained from the General Register Office (GRO). It was not compulsory to register a birth, marriage or death with the British authorities whilst you were abroad, but if the event was registered, then a certificate can be obtained from the GRO.
The records of the GRO are part of The National Archives. Some of the records have a National Archives catalogue reference, series RG, but some of the records in respect of military overseas births, marriages and deaths do not. The National Archives or GRO documentation about the latter group of records is very brief.
The GRO records are closed to the public.
The National Archives has produced a brief online research guide "Looking for records of a birth, marriage or death of a British national at sea or abroad", refer External links below.
Overseas records series RG
| Series | Title | Contents details | Browse subsections | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RG 32 | General Register Office: Miscellaneous Foreign Returns 1831-1969 | Contents | Browse | |
| RG 33 | General Register Office: Foreign Registers and Returns 1627-1960 | Contents | Browse | This Fact Sheet from the now closed Family Records Centre advises RG 33/90-113 contains some entries, mostly 20th century, from the Princely States Bikaner, Eastern Rajputana, Gwalior, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Madras States, Mysore, Punjab States and Trivandrum (index - RG 43/15). |
| RG 34 | General Register Office: Miscellaneous Foreign Marriage Returns 1826-1921 | Contents | Browse | |
| RG 35 | General Register Office: Miscellaneous Foreign Death Returns 1830-1921 | Contents | Browse | Some 19th and early 20th century deaths in French territories in India are in RG 35/16 and RG 35/20-44. |
| RG 36 | General Register Office: Registers and Returns of Births, Marriages and Deaths in the Protectorates etc of Africa and Asia 1895-1965 | Contents | Browse | Includes records for Sarawak, Malaya (inc Johore & Selangor) and British North Borneo, commencing at varying dates. |
| RG 43 | General Register Office: Indexes to Miscellaneous Foreign Returns of Births, Marriages and Deaths 1627-1960 | Contents | Browse | Indexes to the non-statutory registers and returns in RG 32 to RG 34, and to certain Army and Statutory registers retained by the Registrar-General. Also appears to contain indexes to RG 35 |
These records are available on the pay site Ancestry in the dataset UK, Foreign and Overseas Registers of British Subjects, 1627-1965 RG 32-36. You can also access the RG 32-36 records on BMD Registers , (free search but pay to view) which is run by TheGenealogist.co.uk, a pay website, where the records are also available as a subset of “Births, Marriages and Deaths”
Alternatively, the Indexes to Overseas BMD available on Family Relatives (free search and requires a Adobe Flash 11 plug-in) and Findmypast (pay to search) appear to be the indexes from RG 43, together with other indexes in respect of military overseas BMD.
If you find a reference in the indexes to a record in one of the above returns, the following options are available:
- Request a copy online from the GRO (see below). It is unclear whether this record will be an image of the original record, or a transcript.
- View the returns on microfilm at the The National Archives, Kew, and arrange a print of the image if required.
- View RG 32, RG 33, RG 34, RG 35 and RG 36 records online at Ancestry or BMD Registers which are both pay sites. (You may search for free for these records). The images may then be saved to your computer and/or printed.
Other records at the National Archives
- The National Archives has produced a brief guide "Looking for records of a birth, marriage or death at sea or abroad", refer External links below. It is advised there are various FO and CO series at TNA and that there is a comprehensive list arranged by country in the book Tracing your Ancestors in The National Archives by Amanda Bevan (The National Archives, 2006).
- There are Foreign Office (FO) files at the National Archives such as Consular Returns containing copies of entries of birth or baptism, marriage and death or burial of British subjects, Copies of some of these Consular returns are also available at the London Metropolitan Archives, (previously the Guildhall Library), some of whose records have been microfilmed by FamilySearch.
- Most of these records will also be found in the records available from the General Register Office, described above. There are, however, some registers at Kew from which the entries were not transmitted to the Registrar General [1].
- There are some records in the series WO 156 "War Office: UK and overseas garrisons: Registers of Baptisms, Confirmations, Deaths/Burials, and Marriage". Some of the Registers of burials, described as "Selected pieces from the National Archives WO 156/103-122'" have been digitised and are available on the pay website "deceased online", refer below.
Military Overseas records for BMD
- See Chaplains Returns.
Related Fibiwiki Articles
Other sources
- England and Wales census records. See Census and British Army Records
- FamilySearch contains a database "World Miscellaneous", see IGI
- Society of Genealogists. An archived webpage c March 2013 lists some of the Overseas records which are held.
External links
Official
- Order a certificate online from the GRO. This is the only GRO website.
- Contact details for the GRO on Gov.uk, including email address for queries about certificates and advice to include ‘GQ’ in the subject of your email.
- Searching for overseas records Archived website GRO.gov.uk January 2006
- Research your family history using the General Register Office from Gov.uk
Other
- findmypast. Includes a dataset called "British Overseas Marriages" 1818-2005, which are transcriptions only, elsewhere [2] stated to be from records at the Society of Genealogists. Noted were records from the Cape of Good Hope, Malta, Turkey etc., in addition to records from St John's Church, Calcutta. These records appear to be very limited in detail, those looked at only state the year of marriage, and do not state the spouse name.
- GRO Wikipedia
- The National Archives brief guide Looking for records of a birth, marriage or death at sea or abroad
- British Births, Marriages and Deaths Overseas Family Search Wiki
- Levantine Heritage: Registers levantineheritage.com. Retrieved 2 October 2014. The term “Levantines” designates primarily those Europeans and Americans who settled in the Levant - a region generally conterminous with the Ottoman Empire - from the early 17th century until 1923.
- deceased online, a website which is free to search but pay to view, has some records for military burials in Malta, also Egypt and Cyprus. For more details, from the deceased online Home Page, select Coverage and scroll down to " “The National Archives - Military Burials” date added: 12 Dec 2013". Includes records from the National Archives series ADM 6, ADM 73, ADM 305 and WO 156.
- Malta Family History. Includes data for births, marriages and burials. Also includes data about other areas such as the Ionian Islands, including Corfu and has a section called "Other Mediterranean Cemeteries" which includes Gibraltar and Smyrna, Turkey. The Smyrna database also includes baptisms and marriages (1795 – 1832)
- There is also some information about deaths, including some photographs of grave inscriptions, scattered through the regimental pages on British Army Medical Services and the Malta Garrison 1799 – 1979. Includes a website Search
- Details of Malta Registers at The National Archives and Registers in Class ADM. Includes B, M, B. (Note: (selected) burials are now available online, refer above). Alan McGowan’s "Garrison Church Registers".
- Gibraltar WorldGenWeb Project Select 'Articles' for the databases, including burial records from King’s Chapel (Witham’s Cemetery). Where an occupation is shown, the burials appear to be of British Army soldiers, and seamen. Also includes transcriptions by Donald Brett of the Gibraltar Indexes for the Chaplains Returns, for Marriages and Deaths (to 1880). The Gibraltar Chaplains Returns Indexes for Births have been transcribed separately by Donald Brett docser.com version or rootschat.com download version
References