Marriages and Births abroad

[LizzieS]

Hi,
I know you can't help find people who may still be alive but can anyone point me in the right direction?

Is it possible to find marriages and births of British Citizens whilst overseas in the Armed Forces?

I have two uncles, both long dead, who married while they were serving in the army during WW2, one in India and the other in N Africa. Both their wives were Nurses so I guess they were in the army too. I think one of them also had a child before returning to this country. I'd be greatful for any pointers.

Lizzie

[AndrewP]

Hi Lizzie,

Assuming they were British Subjects, they should have taken a copy of their marriage certificate in whichever country to the British Embassy or consulate in that country for the marriage to be included in the British registration system. Those of Scottish extraction should through the consular system, have ended out in the General Register Office for Scotland at New Register House, Edinburgh, and thus ended out indexed in the Minor Records in ScotlandsPeople. The consular records should appear somewhere in the English system too, I presume in The National Archives, at Kew, London.

I don't know if it was a legal obligation to register the marriage through the consular system. I don't know if the system varied any if the marriage was in an army ceremony conducted by a chaplain or padre, compared with a 'local' ceremony in the country they were in.

All the best,

AndrewP

[trish58]

Hi Lizzie

Find my Past have records of births overseas from 1791-1994. I was able to find my Cousins husband's birth1959, both his parents were in the forces overseas.
They have a pay as you go system.
Hope this helps.

Trish

[Currie]

Hello all,

The registration of overseas B D & Ms with British Consuls was entirely voluntary. There’s some info in a previous thread. viewtopic.php?f=7&t=12522

“A mechanism exists that allows someone who is, say, a relative of someone who dies in Spain to approach the British consul in Spain to ask for that death to be mirrored in the registers in the UK. What happens is that first, they register the death in Spain, then they go to the consul, the consul arranges for a translation of the registration to be put into the consul's own register of births, marriages and deaths and that page eventually works its way back to our registers. It usually takes up to about 18 months. It is a voluntary rather than a compulsory process and the consul usually charges a fee for the service.”

Army marriages were different, I think permission to marry would have been required and records noted, for various reasons, as to whether the soldier was married, and:

“under the Foreign Marriage Act all marriages solemnized within the British lines by a chaplain or officer or other person officiating under the orders of the commanding officer of a British army serving abroad, are as valid in law as if they had been solemnized within the United Kingdom subject to due observance of all forms required by law.”
http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Marriage

There's a bit more about it in this 1947 paper http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lord ... ge-bill-hl

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that Army etc marriages were reported direct to GRO(S)? Consul system reports don’t contain the amount of detail that normally appears on Scottish certificates. I haven’t seen the Army variety.

All the best,
Alan

[garibaldired]

I have an 1811 Army birth certificate which indeed gives little detail:
place, name of child, names of parents plus army regiment and mother's maiden name, and dates of birth and baptism, all filled in by the army chaplain.
I also have an 1888 marriage certificate from a soldier in Rawalpindi and the format is exactly the same as an English marriage certificate.

Best wishes,
Meg

[LizzieS]

Hi,
Thanks to you all for your help though its not got me much further unfortunately

They are all British Citizens and my two uncles were both Scots though their wives were both English.

I did find the marriage of one couple in the Minor Records on SP. I'd not noticed these records before so thanks for that information.

The other couple I can't find anywhere! I've tried SP, Ancestry and Find my Past. According to the Family Bible they married in 1941, unfortunately it doesn't give a clue as to where so goodness knows where they married or where their first child was born.

Lizzie