How can I locate a birth record from a British military hospital?
QMy daughter was born in Germany, at the Rinteln British Military Hospital, in 1966. She has a British birth certificate, plus a Certificate of Nationality. So where would I look for her birth registration? There’s nothing on freebmd.org. uk, nor on Ancestry or other sites.
John Killick
AIn England/Wales, the rules of registration mean that events can only be registered in the district in which they took place. So for a birth overseas, the registration will be held in the country in which the birth occurred, and under whatever system of registration is used there. This can lead to issues when children born to British parents overseas later need copies of these important documents.
Special arrangements have long been in place for those serving abroad in the armed forces, with births/baptisms, marriages and deaths being recorded through regimental records, many dating before the introduction of civil registration in 1837.
A similar system was introduced from 1849 allowing for births, marriages and deaths that involved British nationals abroad to be notified to British consular staff in the country concerned, and where this was done a copy was sent back to the General Register Office (GRO). However, this was always optional, rather than being compulsory. For some events, the only record will be the local one.
Indexes to these military and consular records held by the GRO can be found on findmypast.co.uk in the ‘British Armed Forces and Overseas’ collections: bit.ly/fmp-brit-armed. If an entry is found in these indexes, certificates can be obtained from the GRO in the normal way. The GRO has a useful guide to the overseas records it holds at https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/images/CG6_1.pdf. There are also indexes to a smaller number of miscellaneous foreign returns on ancestry.co.uk in the collection ‘UK, Foreign and Overseas Registers of British Subjects, 1628–1969’: bit.ly/anc-uk-foreign. The GRO’s overseas holdings are listed at bit.ly/gov-events-abroad. Antony Marr