Chaplains Returns

The Chaplains Returns of baptisms, marriages and burials 1761-1880. From 1880 they were known as “Army” Births, Deaths and Marriages and from 1959 “Forces” Births, Deaths and Marriages. These records include the registrations of British armed forces (including serving members who were not British nationals) posted overseas.

In 1914 the Royal Commission on Public Records said ‘There is reason to believe that this class of military record has neither been preserved nor transmitted with sufficient care’, so there are many BMD events which are not available.

In particular, the Army Chaplains Returns of Burials most likely do not include many deaths in action, or associated deaths in camp or on the march, including deaths from disease, such as cholera or heat stroke, where a chaplain did not conduct the burial service. The documentation does not appear to cover this point. The Muster roll records should include these deaths.

The Chaplain Returns records were compiled by regimental chaplains and may also be duplicated within the regimental records. The Overseas Section of the General Register Office in Southport holds these volumes and the indexes can be viewed at The National Archives (TNA) and online.

As an example of a record from the Army Birth Returns, a researcher has advised he has a “certified copy” from the GRO taken from “Army Book 112 (Register of Births) of the -th Bn. -th Punjab Regiment for the six months ending 30th June 19-- reported from the Military Station at Isak (North Waziristan)”. Note this Regiment was part of the Indian Army. He advised: I suspect the official recording and reporting of such events as births to British or foreign Indian Army soldiers’ wives were likely to have been done almost entirely through their Army channels with not a Chaplain in sight and would be dependent on the British/foreign father reporting the birth, although one needs to allow for delays in reporting - I was born before the six months specified above In my case it looks as if my father reported my birth to his adjutant a couple of months or more after the event when he was on operations (that means in a war situation) in Waziristan.

The indexes in respect of the overseas registrations are most commonly called the British Army Overseas Indexes. The indexes are available online, see below.

Note that if a record is available both in the India Office Church records (now available on findmypast (pay website)) and in the General Register Office records, the latter may contain more information, at least for some time periods. By way of example, in 1903 the additional information available for a marriage record was the nationalities of the groom and bride, and the occupations of the fathers of the groom and bride.

There is also a series of records which includes India, (held by the General Register Office, and not on open access), known as the Regimental Registers 1761-1924 which are original entries of births/baptisms, marriages and (far fewer) deaths/burials kept by various regiments and relate to the families of officers and other ranks at home and on foreign stations from 1790. Included in this series are records of regimental marriages taking place between 1761 and 1924 that have never been indexed. As these additional records have never been indexed, they are not included in the data on findmypast or other websites. If you can provide the man's name and regiment, and approximate date the GRO will search their records. Email the GRO with GQ in the subject header, eg "GQ Regimental Marriage Registers", to avoid receiving an automated reply. There is a summary list of regiments and of dates covered for births and marriages in an Appendix to My ancestor was in the British Army by Michael J. and Christopher T. Watts (Society of Genealogists, 1995). Indexes for the records which have been indexed, are available on findmypast. In respect of "Regimental Birth Indexes –[these] may show several index references for the same person. As a soldier moved from one regiment to another, he had to register himself and his family each time for pay purposes. If you find more than one index reference for same person, provide all references and we will produce the entry with the most information".

Other National Archives records

Some marriage and baptismal information for Royal Artillery soldiers and their family, including India related details, may be found in the National Archives series WO 69. Some of this information has been transcribed and may be found by entering the surname and “WO69” in the National Archives Discovery Search. Many of the records in this series were destroyed during the Second World War, so the records are incomplete. Also see Royal Artillery for more information.

Other Archives

British Armed Forces, Roman Catholic Registers have been digitised from The Scottish Catholic Archives and are available on findmypast (pay website). See "External links", below.

See also

• British Army Records.
  • The WO97 records, to 1913, described in Section 4.1.2 Service and pension records, available on findmypast, may include information about marriages, births of children or deaths of family members. It may be helpful to view the WO97 record first, before pursing the records mentioned above. Some muster rolls also include married rolls for the regiment.
  • See Service Records for Army personnel serving after January 1921 (April 1922 for officers) which may possibly contain relevant family information.
• General Register Office
  • The series of records RG 34 was noted to include a short roll of "Officers, British Prisoners of War, who have married in Holland" c 1918, including one Indian Army Officer.

External links

• Familyrelatives.com contains the Overseas Indexes which include images from the British Army Overseas Indexes which you can access for free, (even though most other records on the site require a subscription). These are viewable images, which have not been transcribed to search. The site requires an up to date Adobe Flash (Flash 11 or later) plug-in to view the images. First you must log in (with first time registration required), from the Home Page, then select 'Search' (from the bar across the top of the page) and then 'Overseas Records'. Then select the database you are interested in. Note, some pages from the indexes were missing at one time, so the database may not be complete (missing Army marriage pages were noted). Note: this website became inactive late July 2015, but appears to have returned (c February 2016).
• Findmypast (pay website) contains three separate Index databases called British Nationals Armed Forces and Overseas Births, Marriages, Deaths, all of which contain overseas and some UK events, which include the British Army Overseas Indexes, (located within BMD). Some Royal Air Force index records are also included. (Note, "Overseas" was amalgamated into this database 2018/01.) There is a charge to search, however the findmypast records have the advantage that at least some, (possibly all) indicate the relevant regiment. In addition, the database contains indexes for births in the U.K. and overseas, 1761-1924, taken from regimental registers, including births in India. The Armed Forces Deaths database also includes what may be called GRO War Deaths or GRO War Dead. As noted above, WO97 records are also available.

If you have found an index reference and you then want to order a certificate, this can be done online from the GRO. (A charge applies). In the past the certificate has been a transcript, not a copy of the original document, and this is believed to be the current situation.

Note:

• If you do not supply the GRO Index reference, the certificate will take longer to be sent.
• If a record is available both in the India Office Church record series on findmypast and in the GRO records, the latter may contain more information, at least for some time periods. By way of example, in 1903 the additional information available for a marriage record was the nationalities of the groom and bride, and the occupations of the fathers of the groom and bride.
• The GRO certificates for War Deaths only contain limited information, which is taken from Army records, and an example shows it shows only the general terminology "killed in action".

Findmypast also contains the database British Armed Forces, Roman Catholic Registers 1836-1975 (located within BMDs, introduced 2017/11). There is a related Browse database. The registers were created by the Bishopric of the Forces, the religious officials of the Roman Catholic Church responsible for the pastoral care of Roman Catholics in the military, and are from The Scottish Catholic Archives. Includes locations in the UK as well as bases in Cairo, Cyprus, Malta, and more.

• Ancestry (pay website) includes a database UK, British Army and Navy Birth, Marriage and Death Records, 1730-1960 (located in BMD records). This database consists mainly of Naval records, sourced from the National Archives, with relatively few records in respect of the British Army and does not include the GRO records referred to above.
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission. For more detais see, Cemeteries – CWGC.

• National Archives Guide Looking for records of a birth, marriage or death in the armed forces
• FamilySearch microfilm/microfiche records relating to various Indexes mentioned above, with catalogue entry by keyword search National Statist. These records are expected to be digitised in time. See FamilySearch Centres for more details.

• Mediterranean area
  • Malta. Some regiments in India came from a posting in Malta, or were posted there after leaving India.
    • Malta Family History, now an archived website. 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). Although this site is now archived, most/all of the internal links appear to be available.
      • 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
    • There are some church records for Malta available at the London Metropolitan Archives
    • 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. These records are described as "Selected pieces from the National Archives WO 156/103-122'", which are "UK and overseas garrisons; Registers of burials". 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". Also includes records from the National Archives series ADM 6, ADM 73, ADM 305.
    • 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 National Archives now has a Search facility for free transcriptions of Military Births, Deaths and Marriages in Gibraltar 1869-1914, based on records from the Gibraltar Civil Register office. Note a previous comment that a certificate obtained in Gibraltar, from the Registrar of Births and Deaths of Gibraltar, contained additional information to the certificate obtained from the GRO . FamilySearch catalogue entry Civil registration, 1848-1990 from the "Registry of Births, Marriages and Deaths in Gibraltar", with most of the records digitised microfilm viewable on your home computer.

  Gibraltar from Ireland & United KingdomGenWeb. Select ‘Cemetery Records for 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. Select ‘Military Records’ for transcriptions by Donald Brett of the Gibraltar Indexes for the Chaplains Returns for Deaths and Marriages (to 1880). The Gibraltar Chaplains Returns Indexes for Births have been transcribed separately by Donald Brett docser.com version or rootschat.com download version. As above, full records may be obtained from the GRO.

  FamilySearch has some additional records for Gibraltar- See General Register Office-External links for details.

  • Egypt had compulsory civil registration for births and deaths from 1912 for all, including foreigners. Egypt Genealogy FamilySearch Wiki.

Historical books online

• "Monumental Inscriptions of the British Cemeteries in the Ionian Islands" by Ortho Alexander, British Consul, pages 13, 71, 110, 146, 320 Miscellanea genealogica et heraldica, Volume II, Fourth Series 1908. Many Army and Navy entries. Archive.org
• "Monumental Inscriptions in the English Cemetery in Ithaca" [Greek island] by Arthur F G Leveson Gower page 177 Miscellanea genealogica et heraldica Volume V Fourth Series 1914. Mainly military related. Archive.org