Overseas records held by the GRO

I recently made an enquiry with the GRO regarding their overseas records. Since it may be of use to others, this is the response I received:

The following overseas records are held by The General Register Office:

• Births, marriages and deaths registered by the British Forces and the British Consul or High Commission in the country where they took place, from 1849.
• Deaths that occurred in the Boer War and both World Wars.
• British Army Regimental records of births, baptisms and marriages dating back to 1761.
• Marine Births and Deaths, from 1837, which took place on British registered vessels.
• Aircraft Births and Deaths, from 1948, which took place on British registered aircraft.
• Air Deaths (Missing Persons) 1947-1965. These entries relate to people whose bodies have never been found.
• Deaths of workers on British oil and gas rigs.
• Births and deaths on British registered hovercraft.
• Civil Partnerships formed and registered by the British Armed Forces and the British Consul in the country where they took place, from 2005.

Please note, not all overseas births, deaths and marriages involving British nationals are held, as registering with the British authorities is not compulsory. It is not a service which everyone takes up.

Orders for certificates can be made online, by phone, by post or via the register office where the event was registered. For more details see Our Website.

When placing your order online, on the page ‘What would you like to do’ please follow the steps below:

Click on the heading ‘Place an order’
Start application – under ‘Where was the event registered’, please select ‘Outside the United Kingdom and registered by the British Forces, Consul or High Commission'
Please select the relevant type of event
Please provide the year in which the event was registered
‘How can the event be identified?’ Click either “I know the GRO Index Reference’ (enter the full GRO reference as shown in our indexes) or ‘I want GRO to search for the registration and I will provide details to identify it’

If the search is unsuccessful, we will contact you to advise that we are unable to trace an entry in the details supplied and a refund is issued.

This is the fee you paid less any administrative costs incurred by the General Register Office in processing this application. Please refer to our Frequently Asked Questions section on our website: GOV.UK – Section 4.​