GUILDHALL LIBRARY
BIRTHS, MARRIAGES AND DEATHS OVERSEAS
There are a number of sources available in the United Kingdom which can be used in searching for births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials of British persons overseas. For some baptisms and marriages in the period before ca.1880 there is the worldwide International Genealogical Index (IGI), compiled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon Church), which includes some British residents overseas. Guildhall Library does not hold the parts of this index which relate to countries outside the British Isles, but these are available at the Genealogical Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 64-8 Exhibition Road, London SW7 2PA, at other Mormon libraries throughout the world and at the Society of Genealogists, 14 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Road, London EC1M 7BA. There are many other sources besides the IGI. Some of these are at Guildhall Library, but the majority are held elsewhere. Brief details of the more important sources can be found below. More information is given in The British Overseas: a guide to records of their births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials available in the United Kingdom (3rd edition, 1994), published by Guildhall Library, (price £5.75 plus postage and packing); an order form can be found overleaf. The British Overseas gives full details of sources held by Guildhall Library, the Public Record Office, the Society of Genealogists and other record offices and libraries throughout the United Kingdom.
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Australia: microfiche copies of the civil registration indexes of births, marriages and deaths in some Australian states and other sources are available at the Society of Genealogists (see above for address). Otherwise advice may be sought from the civil registration authorities in the state concerned. Addresses can be obtained from The British Overseas, on application to the Office for National Statistics (at the General Register Office at the Family Records Centre, 1 Myddleton Street, London EC1R 1UW for personal enquiries and at the General Register Office, PO Box 2, Southport PR8 2JD for postal enquiries) or from the Australian Overseas Information Service, Australian High Commission, Strand, London WC2B 4LA. Some state houses provide a service for certificates; details are given in The British Overseas. Assistance may also be obtained from the Society of Australian Genealogists, Richmond Villa, 120 Kent Street, Sydney, New South Wales 2000, Australia.
Canada: apart from the IGI and some other sources held at the Society of Genealogists (see above for address), there are no sources available in the United Kingdom. Advice may be sought from the local genealogical societies in the province concerned, whose addresses can be found in Meyer's Directory of Genealogical Societies in the USA and Canada (edited by Mary Keysor Meyer, Mount Airy, Maryland, 1990); a copy of this book is held by Guildhall Library.
India, Burma, Pakistan, Bangladesh: records, virtually complete, 1698-1968, are in the India Office Library at the British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB.
New Zealand; apart from the IGI and some other sources held at the Society of Genealogists (see above for address), there are no sources held in the United Kingdom. Advice may be sought from the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, PO Box 31-115, Lower Hutt, New Zealand. Assistance is also available from the New Zealand Society of Genealogists, PO Box 8795, Symonds Street, Auckland 1035, New Zealand.
West Indies: original records are held locally in the West Indies. However, some register transcripts for a number of West Indian islands are available in the United Kingdom: details are given in The British Overseas.
Continued overleaf
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(see access leaflet for details)
Other countries in the British Empire or Commonwealth: most original records are likely to be held locally in the country concerned. However, a few sources are available in the United Kingdom (for example, some 19th and 20th century sources are held by the Public Record Office, Kew, Surrey TW9 4DU); details are given in The British Overseas.
United States: for persons of English or Welsh origin, there are "consular" records 1849 to date at the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (see overleaf for addresses); and for persons of Scottish origin, there are "consular" records 1860 to date at the General Register Office for Scotland, New Register House, Edinburgh EH1 3YT. For the period before 1849, apart from the IGI and some other sources held by the Society of Genealogists, there are no sources in the United Kingdom. Advice may be sought from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Family History Centre, 35 North West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150, USA, or from local genealogical societies in the state concerned, whose addresses can be found in Meyer's Directory of Genealogical Societies in the USA and Canada (see overleaf for details).
Other countries outside the British Empire or Commonwealth: for persons of English or Welsh origin, there are "consular" records 1849 to date at the Office for National Statistics (see overleaf for addresses) and at the Public Record Office, Kew, Surrey TW9 4DU (full details of the latter are given in The British Overseas); for persons of Scottish origin, there are "consular" records 1860 to date at the General Register Office for Scotland (see above for address). Further records, 17th to 20th centuries, are available in the United Kingdom as follows: the Public Record Office has numerous registers for individual places overseas; other records are in Guildhall Library and various other libraries and record offices. Full details are given in The British Overseas.
Persons on board ship or in a military unit abroad: records of births, marriages and deaths in British Army regiments abroad after ca. 1790, and of English or Welsh births and deaths at sea after 1837, are mostly at the Office for National Statistics, General Register Office (see overleaf for addresses). Records of Scottish births and deaths at sea after 1855 are mostly at the General Record Office for Scotland (see above for address). There are some entries for baptisms at sea after 1893 in the parish registers of St Dunstan Stepney (held at London Metropolitan Archives, 40 Northampton Road, London EC1R OHB); however, the popular belief that all baptisms at sea were registered there is incorrect. Details of other sources are given in The British Overseas.
What if no record can be found?
1) If no relevant entry can be found in the year when the birth, marriage or death is thought to have occurred, it may be useful to consult the records of subsequent years, as events abroad were often registered some time after they took place.
2) If no registers exist for the town or locality concerned, it may be useful to examine the records of other towns in the same country, as births, marriages and deaths abroad were not always registered in the place where they occurred.
3) If no relevant records can be traced in the United Kingdom, it will be necessary to search for records held overseas. Advice on where to begin such a search may be obtained from the Overseas Registration Section, General Register Office, PO Box 2, Southport PR8 2JD or from the London embassy or high commission of the country concerned. Some further information is given in The British Overseas.
4) Many births, marriages and deaths overseas, especially in the 18th century and earlier, were not registered at all. In other cases where the event was registered, the register may have failed to survive. Thus for a large number of births, marriages and deaths overseas no record exists anywhere.
PJS/Revised June 1998
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