British Royal Marines, Marriage Registers 1813-1920

Each record comprises a transcript and black and white image of the original register. The amount of information listed varies, but the records usually include a combination of the following information about your ancestor:

Transcript

• First name(s)
• Last name
• Marriage year
• Marriage date
• Spouse’s first name(s)
• Spouse’s last name
• Marriage place
• Town
• Country
• Series
• Box

Image

The image may provide additional details, including:

• Rank
• Marital status
• Spouse’s marital status
• If permission was given
• Witness names
• Child(ren)’s name(s)
• Birth dates of child(ren)
• Denomination
• Disposal
• Adjutant’s name

The record set comprises over 18,000 records of Royal Marines, who got married in 11 countries around the world.

Some of the records include later details such as deaths of wives or children.

Included in this record set are the series ADM 183 from The National Archives, comprising the Royal Marines, Chatham Division: registers of births, baptisms, marriages and deaths of children between 1830 and 1913 from the divisional headquarters of the Royal Marines at Chatham, and ADM 184, the register of marriages, births and deaths of children between 1862 and 1920 of the Royal Marines, Plymouth Division.

The Royal Marines

The Royal Marines were formed in 1755 as marine infantry for the Royal Navy. They have fought alongside the British Army in such conflicts as the Seven Years’ War, the Napoleonic Wars, Crimean War, World War 1 and World War 2. In recent years, the Marines have been involved in the Falklands War, the Gulf War and conflicts in Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Iraq and Afghanistan.

During the First World War, in addition to their usual stations on board war ships, Royal Marines were part of the Royal Naval Division, which landed in Belgium in 1914 to help defend the port of Antwerp. They later took part in the amphibious landings at Gallipoli in 1915 and also served on the Western Front.