BMD Registers logo

Guide to BMD Registers


What is RG34?

General Register Office: Overseas Foreign Marriage Returns. This series contains marriage certificates issued by foreign registration authorities and churches, copies of entries in the registers kept by British embassies, incumbents of English churches and chaplains, notification of marriages of servicemen during service abroad, and documents deposited for safekeeping. These cover the period 1861 to 1921.

Scope and content

Overseas Foreign Marriage Returns. This series contains marriage certificates issued by foreign registration authorities and churches, copies of entries in the registers kept by British embassies, incumbents of English churches and chaplains, notification of marriages of servicemen during service abroad, and documents deposited for safekeeping. These cover the period 1861 to 1921. These records give detailed information about both the groom and the bride and their family. Military Marriage records are also included in this record set giving Groom and Wife’s Name, Rank, Regiment and Nationality.

The Genealogist Research Guide by David Tippey

Contents

Researching Your Family History Using TheGenealogist.co.uk

  1. Getting started
  2. The Genealogist
  3. Smart Search™

Census

The census

  1. What is the census?
  2. What does it tell us?
  3. Possible pitfalls
  4. Using the census
  5. Paleography (how to deal with difficult handwriting)
  6. Working with the census

Anatomy of the census page

  1. How the page is numbered
  2. The census information
  3. Other marks

About census indexes

  1. Creating census name indexes

Using census indexes

  1. Searching the indexes
  2. Accuracy and omissions

About census transcripts

Using census transcripts

  1. Search terms

BMDs

Birth, marriage & death records index

  1. What they provide
  2. Why buy certificates?
  3. Finding certificate references
  4. 1837 to 1983 data
  5. 1984 onwards
  6. Additional features
  7. Ordering certificates

Other resources

Parish records

  1. Using the parish registers

Trade directories

Other resources

  1. English & Welsh Landowners 1873
  2. Knights of England 1127 to 1904