British Armed Forces and Overseas Births and Baptisms
Findmypast has brought together records from the General Register Office and The National Archives in one collection of British military birth and baptism records of those born overseas and at sea. The collection holds birth records of children born to those working within the UK Army, merchant navy, and consular forces, as well as, civilian ship passengers.
See description
Findmypast has brought together records from the General Register Office and The National Archives in one collection of British military birth and baptism records of those born overseas and at sea. The collection holds birth records of children born to those working within the UK Army, merchant navy, and consular forces, as well as, civilian ship passengers.
Learn more about these records
With each result, you will be given a transcript with the vital details recorded from the original source. Many results will also give you an image of the original record. The amount of detail in each transcript will depend on the original record. Below is a list of facts that you may find in the records:
- Name
- Year
- Birth date
- Baptism date
- Birth place
- Place
- County
- Country
- Father’s name
- Mother’s name
- Organisation
- Father’s occupation
- Archive
- Source
- Document type
- Record year range
- Page
- Archive reference
The British armed forces and overseas births and baptisms pulls together records from the General Register Office (GRO) and The National Archive (TNA) to create one expansive collection. Below we have provided a full list of sources including the archive and series information. Within the collection, you will find birth records from families of military personnel, British Consul staff, and British nationals working overseas, as well as, individuals born at sea. The details found in the GRO indexes will allow you to purchase the original certificate from the General Register Office.
If you have a relative or ancestor who was born overseas but was still classed as a British citizen at the time of the birth, then it is quite possible that the British Consul or the UK High Commission in the relevant jurisdiction would have been notified of the birth, allowing you to find the record within the General Register Office Consular indices.
The armed forces records include the registrations of British armed forces (including serving members who were not British nationals) posted overseas. This index also includes some regimental registers and chaplains' returns for army births which took place in the British Isles, for example, at barracks and garrisons.
The records include births of the children of passengers, seamen, and Royal Marines, of both British and other nationalities. Some of the records contain notes about conditions surrounding the birth, such as premature confinement, if the child was stillborn, or if the mother was unmarried.
Most of the records found in this collection were previously available as separate record sets on Findmypast as British nationals born overseas 1818-2005, British nationals armed forces births 1761-2005, and Births at sea, 1854-1960. We have combined the various record sets and added additional records from The National Archives to create this extensive collection.
The sources are organised in alphabetical order by the repository and archive reference.
General Register Office
BT 158 - Registers of the births of passengers between 1854 and 1890
ABR1 - GRO Births Abroad Indices (1966 to 1978)
ABR1 - GRO Births Abroad Indices (1966 to 1978)
ABR2 - GRO Births Abroad Indices (1979 to 1994)
ABR2 - GRO Births Abroad Indices (1979 to 1994)
AIRB - GRO Air Births Indices (1947-1965)
BARM - GRO Army Birth Indices (1881 to 1965)
BCHA - GRO Army Chaplains Birth Indices (1796 to 1880)
BCON - GRO Consular Birth Indices (1849 to 1965)
BINC - GRO Ionian Islands Chaplains Returns Births (1818-1864)
BINM - GRO Ionian Islands Military Registration Births (1818-1864)
IONR - GRO Ionian Islands Civil Registration Births (1818-1864)
BMR1 - GRO Marine Births Indices (Informal Certs 1-41)
BMR2 - GRO Marine Births Indices (1837 to 1965)
REG1 - GRO Regimental Birth Indices (1761 to 1924)
REG2 - GRO Regimental Birth Indices Supplement (1761 to 1924)
BUK1 - GRO U.K. High Commission Birth Indices (PRE 1956)
BUK2 - GRO U.K. High Commission Birth Indices (up to 1981)
B1995ONWARDS - GRO Births Abroad Indices (1995 to 2005)
The National Archive
ADM 183 - Births from the Chatham Division of the Royal Marines 1830 - 1913
BT 334 - Births of British and foreign passengers and seamen between 1891 and 1972.
CUST 67 - Births at sea, Falmouth 1892 - 1918
ADM 193/9 - Royal Marine Artillery Division, Portsmouth, marriage & baptism register
ADM 305/86 - Haslar Royal Naval Hospital baptism register
ADM 338/142 - Royal Marines Depot, Walmer, Kent: baptism register
ADM 6/432 - Sheerness town & garrison, Kent: baptism register
ADM 7/1 - Miscellaneous Navy birth, marriage & death certificates
ADM 81/25 - Royal Marines, Woolwich Division, baptism register
BT 150/1 - Registers of Births at Sea of British Nationals: England
BT 150/2 - Registers of Births at Sea of British Nationals: England
BT 150/3 - Registers of Births at Sea of British Nationals: Ireland
BT 150/4 - Registers of Births at Sea of British Nationals: Ireland
BT 150/5 - Registers of Births at Sea of British Nationals: Scotland
BT 150/6 - Registers of Births at Sea of British Nationals: Scotland
BT 158/1 - Registers of births, deaths & marriages of passengers at sea
BT 158/2 - Registers of births, deaths & marriages of passengers at sea
BT 158/3 - Registers of births, deaths & marriages of passengers at sea
BT 158/4 - Registers of births, deaths & marriages of passengers at sea
BT 158/5 - Registers of births & deaths of passengers at sea
BT 26/66/85 - SS Galicia travelling from Valparaiso to Liverpool. Embarking at Valparaiso, Montevideo, & Rio de Janeiro. Official Number: 69249. List of passengers disembarking at Liverpool. [Passengers included one female child born during the voyage. Nationality: Spanish. No date of birth given].
BT 26/71/39 - SS Pennland travelling from Philadelphia to Liverpool. Embarking at Philadelphia. Official Number: [No official number listed]. List of passengers disembarking at Queenstown & Liverpool. [Passengers included one child that died during the voyage]. [Passengers included one female that was born during the voyage. Nationality: British. No date of birth given].
BT 85/74/65 - SS India (British India Steam Navigation Company Ltd) travelling from Brisbane to London. Embarking at Brisbane, Rockhampton, Townsville, Cairns, Cooktown & Aden. Official Number: 85861. List of passengers disembarking at Plymouth & London. [Passengers included one male child born during the voyage. Nationality: British. No date of birth given ]. [Passengers included two individuals that died during the voyage].
FO 292/2 - Legation Dresden, Saxony: birth register
FO 292/3 - Legation Dresden, Saxony: birth register
FO 375/1 - Consulates Luanda & Sao Tome, Portuguese West Africa: birth register
FO 376/1 - Consulate Aux Cayes, Haiti: birth register
FO 377/3 - Consulate Riga, Russian empire: birth register
FO 531/2 - Consulate Porsgrund, Norway: birth register
FO 559/1 - Consulate Ponta Delgada, Portugal: Register of deaths, births, marriages & burials
FO 560/1- Bushire, Iran: register of Births, Baptisms, Marriages & Deaths
FO 564/13 - Legation Peking, China: birth register
FO 581/15 - Legation New Orleans, USA: birth register
FO 585/1 - Consulate Bremen & Bremerhaven, Germany: birth register
FO 604/1 - District of Dusseldorf consulate: birth register
FO 604/8 - Christ Church, Dusseldorf: baptism register
FO 617/3 - Consulate Jerusalem, Ottoman Empire: birth register
FO 625/2 - Consulate & Embassy Bucharest, Romania: birth register
FO 625/5 - British Chaplaincy on the Lower Danube: baptism register
FO 663/85 - Consulate Amoy, China: birth register
FO 665/3 - Consulate Foochow, China: birth register
FO 670/2 - Consulate Ningpo, China: birth register
FO 672/1 - Consulate Shanghai, China: birth register
FO 673/9 - Consulate Ningpo, China: birth register
FO 687/23 - Consulate Papeete, French Polynesia: birth register
FO 687/5 - Consulate Papeete, French Polynesia: birth, marriage & death register
FO 700/23 - United States various consulates: birth register
FO 710/1 - Consulate Tananarive & Embassy, Malagasy Republic: birth register
FO 712/1-2 - Consulate Dieppe, France: birth register
FO 716/1 - Embassy & consulate Darmstadt, Germany (formerly Hesse): birth register
FO 723/1 - Embassy & legation Mexico City: birth register
FO 743/11 - Embassy & Legation, Rio de Janiero, Brazil: birth register
FO 818/15 - Consulate Gothenburg, Sweden: baptism register
FO 83/1493 - Marriages abroad, miscellaneous
FO 83/1495 - Marriages abroad, A-F
FO 83/1582 - Marriages abroad, A-G
FO 83/1583 - Marriages abroad, I-Z
FO 83/1645 - Marriages abroad, A-J
FO 83/1705 - Marriages abroad, A-M
FO 83/1815 - Marriages abroad, A-G
FO 83/1926 - Marriages abroad, A-F
FO 83/1966 - Marriages abroad, A-F
FO 83/1967 - Marriages abroad, G-Z
FO 83/2061 - Marriages abroad, A-F
FO 83/2062 - Marriages abroad, G-Z
FO 866/14 - Legation & consulate, Port-au-Prince, Haiti: Registers of births, deaths & marriages
FO 886/1 - Embassy & consular Sulina: birth register
FO 887/1 - Consulate Kustendie, Ottoman Empire: birth register
FO 888/1 - Consulate Rustschuk, Ottoman Empire: birth register
FO 910/5 - Consulate Lausanne, Switzerland: death register
FO 97/504 - Marriages abroad
RG 32/40 - Miscellaneous Foreign Returns
RG 33/1 - Foreign Registers & returns: Belgium
RG 33/106 - Foreign Registers & returns: Indian sub-continent
RG 33/107, 110-112 - Foreign Registers & returns: Indian sub-continent
RG 33/117 -118 - Foreign Registers & returns: Italy
RG 33/122 - 123 - Foreign Registers & returns: Japan
RG 33/133 - Foreign Registers & Returns: Iraq
RG 33/142 - Foreign Registers & returns: Portugal
RG 33/144 - 152 - Foreign Registers & returns: Russia
RG 33/157 - Foreign Registers & returns: Indian sub-continent
RG 33/163 - Foreign Registers & returns: Cyprus
RG 33/34 - Foreign Registers & returns: China
RG 33/37-78 - Foreign Registers & returns: France
RG 33/79 – 81 - Foreign Registers & returns: Germany
RG 33/82 - Foreign Registers & returns: Greece
RG 33/83, 86, 89 - Foreign Registers & returns: Holland
RG 36/1 – 11, 13 - Registers & Returns of Births, Marriages & Deaths in the Protectorates of Africa & Asia. Africa, part 1
SP 110/70 - British factory at Aleppo, chaplain's register of baptisms, marriages & burials
WO 156/1 - Dover Castle Garrison, Kent: baptism register
WO 156/338 - Garrison Church, Devonport, Devon: baptism register
WO 156/340 - Royal Chapel of St Katherine-upon-the-Hoe within the Royal Citadel, Plymouth, Devon: baptism register
WO 156/345 – 346 - Camp Church, Colchester, Essex: baptism register
WO 156/347-348 - St Peter & St Paul (Royal Artillery), Shoeburyness, Essex: baptism register
WO 156/353-356 - Camp Church, Aldershot, Hampshire: baptism register
WO 156/357 – 359 - Garrison Church, Aldershot, Hampshire: baptism register
WO 156/365 - Iron Church (later St George), Aldershot, Hampshire: baptisms
WO 156/380 - Garrison Chapel, Portsmouth, Hampshire: baptism register
WO 156/381 – 382 - Royal Garrison Church, St George's Chapel, Portsmouth, Hampshire: baptism register
WO 156/398, 400-404 - Garrison Church, Canterbury, Kent: baptism register
WO 156/410 – 411 - Garrison Church, Shorncliffe, Kent: baptism register
WO 156/415 – 416 - Royal Military Chapel, St James's Park, London: baptism register
WO 156/419 - Military Chapel, Chelsea Barracks, London: baptism register
WO 156/425 – 427 - St George's Garrison Church, Woolwich, Kent: baptism register
WO 156/428 - Military Church, Woolwich Dockyard, Kent: baptism register
WO 156/429 – 431 - St George's Garrison Church, Woolwich, Kent: baptism register
WO 156/435 - Royal Artillery Chapel, Woolwich, Kent: baptism register
WO 156/450 - College Chapel Royal Military College, Sandhurst: Burials
WO 156/470 - Garrison Church, Fulford, Yorkshire: baptism register
WO 156/594 – 595 - Malta: baptisms & marriages
WO 156/596 – 598 - Garrison Church, Malta: baptism register
WO 32/8903 – 8905 - Birth & Baptismal Certificates of militia officers, extracted from destroyed papers.
WO 32/8906-8910 - Certificates of births & baptisms of militia officers
WO 32/8911-8915 - Certificates of births & baptisms, extracted from old papers
WO 69/63-64 - Register of Marriages & Baptisms, A Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery
WO 69/65 - Register of Marriages & Baptisms, B Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery
WO 69/66 - Register of Marriages & Baptisms, K Battery B Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery
WO 69/70 - Register of Marriages & Baptisms, Royal Horse Artillery
WO 69/71 - Register of Marriages & Baptisms, C Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery
WO 69/73 - Register of Marriages & Baptisms, E Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery
UK Genealogy Archives
Sarawak Baptisms, 1844-1925
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