Britons: Events Abroad, Occupational & Miscellaneous Sources
Promotion of religious tolerance in Leghorn, Italy, at the end of the 16th century was a little contrary to the policies being followed elsewhere in Europe. Catholics in Britain were still moving abroad to avoid harassment. Protestants in some other Catholic countries were not always finding their new hosts particularly tolerant and elsewhere in the world there was racial tension. However, what happened in Leghorn attracted exiles and merchants who thrived in the liberated environment. As a result, business expanded rapidly over many decades during which time expatriate chapels established in the port attracted British registrations, even from parts outside of Leghorn. How these foreign registrations from Italy and elsewhere got back to London is something else.

Early trading companies such as the Muscovy Company (Russia) and the East India Company (East Indies), among others, often obtained special privileges from foreign states and possibly set a pattern, which is still evident today. Trading possibilities created opportunity. This invited migration. Eventual overseas settlement invariably resulted in births, marriages, and deaths. These, in turn, demanded the opening of overseas churches and burial grounds for expatriate subjects or those of a particular religious denomination. However, not all host states were receptive.

Many Britons were registered abroad. By any measure, the number created in so many places by the subjects of such a small nation should not be underestimated. It would demand far too much space to list all the countries in which Britons were registered but the list starts with entries of African Protectorates, Algeria and Angola and ends with those of Venezuela, West Indies and Zanzibar! Registers of British births, baptisms, marriages, deaths, and burials in varying date frames can be found for around 100 different countries from as early as the 1600s. Events were generally Statutory (Consular Returns, Regimental Registers, Army Chaplains' Returns, War Deaths, Marine Registers, etc.), or Non Statutory (being those not lodged after any Act of Parliament but collected and collated from various sources by the General Register Office), or possibly those registered to the Bishop of London who licensed Anglican clergy overseas and claimed spiritual charge of such expatriates.

British subjects were so extensively distributed abroad in the early 1800s that the need for some way to record overseas events and provide certified register extracts was deemed necessary. To answer this need the Bishop of London, who claimed spiritual charge of expatriates, took on the formal registration of foreign marriages, births and burials at London as of 1816. Over many decades, thousands of entries were received from British embassies and consulates as well as from travelling clergymen and chaplains. They found their way into registers, and are now known as the International Memoranda 1816-1924, and are held at the Guildhall Library in London. The period, 1816-1878, can only be seen on microfilm. However, all the indexes are on the open shelves. The Genealogical Society of Utah has also filmed volumes and indexes, 1816-1870. Events were not all recorded immediately and there are instances of a few only getting into the registers some 20-30 years after the actual event, although delays of 4-5 years were more typical.

A broad study of just where Britons were living at different times in the past 300-400 years makes a fascinating study. Religion played a part. Widespread overseas propagation of religion in one form or another was also very popular beginning in 1800. Among many other countries, China was home to British missionaries and merchants throughout the 19th century. There are thousands of chiefly Foreign Office entries held at the Public Record Office for events in China from the 1850s, although registers of Macau date exceptionally from 1719. The registers show much intermarriage between Britons and Chinese subjects and with Russian subjects, some of whom worked on the Mongolian Railways. Many of the descendants of these folk left China in the political turmoil of the 1920s and made their way to Australia, Britain, and North America. Elsewhere, the School of Oriental & African Studies-London, Rhodes House Library-Oxford, Cambridge University Library, among others, all hold records of missionaries.

There was constant sea traffic between the Baltic ports and Britain from the 1700s. Russia was home to many British merchants and traders, right up to the Revolution. This can be seen from St. Petersburg (once Leningrad) registers, which start in 1723 but are predated by Archangel, 1719, and then by Moscow, 1706.

Latin America attracted its fair share of British subjects, too. Mining, civil, and railway engineers worked extensively throughout the region. The meat trade in Argentina also created a British community with many Britons living at Fray Bentos.

Island communities, even lonely ones, attracted Britons for varying reasons. Ascension Island in the mid-South Atlantic, visited by Dampier in 1701 and now under Admiralty control, was and still is a useful outpost. Tristan da Cuhna, the world's loneliest island in the South Atlantic, some 2000 miles off The Cape of Good Hope, is another location that the British first visited in 1790 and later settled; St. Helena, the half-way point between the Orient and Britain for East India Co. vessels; Tahiti, which needs absolutely no introduction; even the multitudinous Lofoten Islands off Norway, were sometimes, amazingly, all home to Britons at different times. Register entries exist for all of them and very many more unexpected places.

Locating these varied events in yesteryear would normally have been something else, but help is nowadays closer at hand. In 1984 Geoffrey Yeo compiled the first edition of The British Overseas. The current edition has been much updated and probably lists all known holdings. 100pp - Published by the Guildhall Library, London (Research Guide No 2).

The already well-known Public Record Office publication, Tracing your Ancestors in the Public Record Office, by Amada Bevan, has also very recently been greatly enlarged and updated. This covers the same material and much, much more on other subjects. Both books are world-class reference works and should be on the shopping lists of serious international family researchers.

The number of entries per country varies enormously as do date frames for the events. Those for small islands and isolated locations are more limited, than, say, for America, which represents some 25 percent of the pages in the Guildhall guide. Worthy of some study are the types of registers for the United States of America. Many entries were forwarded from America by British consuls, but in the list are also numerous books of Episcopalian, Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Moravian, Quaker, Roman Catholic, Dutch Reformed, Congregational, German Reformed, Swedish, Dutch, French, and Slave denominations.

All told, some 30 different repositories (some abroad) where the stated holdings might be located are listed. Among them are the Society of Genealogists, the Public Record Office, Guildhall Library, Lambeth Palace Library, and the Oriental & India Office Collections at the British Library, all in London.

Whilst some of the older material referred to here will generally predate civil registration, it is worth noting that many countries (and provinces of them), particularly within what is now the British Commonwealth of Nations, introduced civil registration as early as the mid-1800s and these sources are well worth investigating as the need arises.

In the United Kingdom, civil registrations are part of the official holdings of the Registrar General. They are deposited at Smedley Hydro at Southport in Lancashire. The main public registers of the Registrar General of England and Wales are nowadays held at the offices of the General Register Office (part of the Office of National Statistics -ONS) on the lower floor of Myddleton House, Myddleton Street, Islington, just north of London's centre. This houses the actual public registers, but fiche copies can be found in many local record centers throughout the United Kingdom. The upper floor is managed by the Public Record Office and houses the national census returns and pre-1858 PCC Wills. The whole building is known as the Family Record Centre.

There is a great deal more to be found at the Family Record Centre than just civil births, deaths, and marriages registered in England and Wales since civil registration was introduced in 1837. Tucked away in a corner of the ground floor are the indexes to army registers from 1761, Ionian Island events from the period of British occupation 1818-1864, and General Register Office index to Marine events (as described in an earlier part of this series) plus indexes to the following:

• Consular Registers of Births: Marriages: and Deaths 1849-1965
• Protectorates of Africa & Asia: Registers of Births 1941-1965
• United Kingdom High Commission: Births Abroad 1940-1981
• Air Registers: Births and Deaths 1947-1965
• Miscellaneous Foreign Registers: Births, Marriages & Deaths 1956-1965
• Registers of Births and Marriages and Deaths Abroad 1966-1987 - these took over from the Air, Consular, Marine, Miscellaneous, and Service series and some sections of the High Commission material

Along with this material is an extensive series of volumes of war deaths from the Boer War period, World War I and World War II. Birth registers of adopted children from 1927 are also found here.

Elsewhere, the sheer mass of other events is a little less apparent. Much of this will provide precise facts, although some will drift off the mark a little.

The span of non-parochial registers of births, marriages, and deaths, surrendered to the Non-Parochial Registers Commissions of 1837 and 1857, is very wide and covers Authenticated English and Welsh registers 1567 - 1858.

Describing these holdings is not straightforward as the sources are not all at one central location. Non-parochial records held at the Public Record Office number several thousand non-conformist registers. It also includes some of the Foreign Churches in England, and a number of Church of England registers falling outside of the usual Anglican sources. Only 77 Catholic registers were returned in 1837 and these, too, can also be seen at the Public Record Office. Other surviving registers may have been retained by priests. Further details can be found in the Catholic Record Society in London. Among the holdings of foreign churches most are Huguenot. Huguenot interests are otherwise represented by The Huguenot Society, University College, London. Other foreign church registers at the Public Record Office include the following:

• The French Chapel Royal 1700-1754
• Dutch Chapel Royal 1689-1775
• German Lutheran Chapel Royal 1712-1836
• German Lutheran Churches 1694-1853
• Swiss Church 1762-1839.

More recent entries can be found in the French Episcopal Church of the Savoy at Bloomsbury 1843-1900 and the Reformed French Church in Brighton 1865-1879.

The Public Record Office is also home to birth certifications from the Presbyterian, Independent, and Baptist Registries and the Wesleyan Methodist Metropolitan Registry 1742-1840, the Society of Friends Registers and certificates of births, deaths and marriages 1613 - 1841, Registers of Clandestine Marriages and of Baptisms in the Fleet Prison, the King's Bench Prison, the Mint and the May Fair Chapel 1667 to about 1777. There are thousands of other odd events hidden away in many of their 9,000,000 odd records.

City of Westminster Archives also holds Baptist, Methodist, Wesleyan, Lutheran, Huguenot, and French church registers for parishes in its district. Finding aids for records of the Catholic Chapels Royal and of the Portuguese Embassy Royal 1662-1829 and a wide range of other Nonconformist, Huguenot, and Jewish records can be seen at the London Metropolitan Archive.

Some registrations will already be covered by the International Genealogical Index. It should also be pointed out that many of the denominations mentioned here are represented by active associations today. Record societies and researchers should take advantage of these wherever possible.

People in the 1700s were just as hungry for news as people are today. The Annual Register was first published in 1758 and is still being published today. Apart from carrying articles and commentaries of the day, the earlier volumes also contain thousands of references to births, marriages, and deaths; often with incredibly detailed incidental biographical information. The British Library will probably hold a full run. Extensive or partial runs can be found in many other repositories or libraries. Alongside this publication is another gem. The Gentleman's Magazine (GM) appeared monthly from 1731 to 1908. It is of particular importance to genealogists as, until 1861, it published details of births, marriages, and deaths even for those not of the upper crust of society. Trade and middle classes were often included. The Gentleman's Magazine is a rich source of reports of events and people. It also contains many obituary notices. However, finding a full set might not be easy. The British Library and the Society of Genealogists have all editions and the Public Record Office certainly has a very extensive run. There are cumulative indexes 1731-1786 and 1786-1819. An index to births and marriages 1731-1862, by R. H. Farrar was published in 1886. E. A. Fry published an index to marriages 1731-1768 in 1922. Not all collections are complemented by these indexes.

Trade and business sources for family historians are abundant, but finding vital facts in them might be less straightforward. Few of these records provide ready-made indexes or transcripts of vital events and details. They vary in quality and are for varying date frames. They may also be deposited in many different places. One other factor is that the records sought are less likely to have been deposited at the Public Record Office, London's Municipal Archives, or at a county record office. Tracing the whereabouts of this type of material can be a time consuming business, especially for overseas researchers. There is no one single, absolutely definitive index of all such holdings or their places of deposit, although the Historical Manuscripts Commission in London has much listed in its on-line National Register of Archives (NRA) under the Archon banner. This is a searchable database listing the whereabouts of archive material of some 150,000 corporate, personal and family subjects and locations. A brief overview showed that the Cunard shipping line archive is held at Liverpool University whilst the Jardine Matheson Company records 1798-1978 are kept at Cambridge University. Some listed archives hold a lot, others maybe just a page or two. Many British universities and libraries are a fine source of such records as most maintain large private collections of donated business material. These also often contain details of the families who managed them as well as staff and employees.

On this front, it is worth pausing briefly to mention the Access to Archives (A2A) project in the United Kingdom. This is a nationwide collaborative project headed by the Public Record Office to get the catalogues of all registered places of deposit online. It can be accessed at or via the Public Record Office site at . Another incredibly useful Web site is that of Familia, which is a similar electronic repository of library holdings. Many of these are also record offices.

Vital events obtainable from occupational sources are something else. There is much of interest to genealogists and family historians to be found here. However, vital facts are not so discernable, and finding out exactly where occupational records might be is almost an art in itself. Probably the best place to start is the book Occupational Sources for Genealogists, by Stuart A. Raymond, 83pp, published by the Federation of Family History Societies (Publications) Ltd, Birmingham. This small book costs around US-$10 and is a very well researched bibliography of some 500 odd occupational subjects listing thousands of sources of British occupational information. The compiler is well known and acknowledged as a very experienced genealogist and researcher. Sources may be in trade directories, society and association membership lists, treatises on a specific business, occupations, and even locations with well-researched facts and sources. (e.g."Teachers: The Records of the British & Foreign Schools Society" - Genealogists Magazine 23(3) 1989 102-3: Records may be used to follow the careers or individual teachers and the progress of students). A very wide date frame is covered in this guide which also covers places as well as occupations (e.g. Seville: Spain - Martin Murphy, St. Gregory's College 1592-1767; A Biographical Dictionary - Catholic Record Society Publications). There is no doubt that 30 minutes spent perusing this guide could positively change the research stance of enthusiastic family researchers.

Crime seems to have been as much an occupation as any other trade and it is not surprising that there is very useful data for family researchers to be found in both convict and prisoner records.

Convicts: From as early as the late 1500s the British government was keen to purge the nation of rogues and rascals. It succeeded by first deporting some of these souls to help develop America, rather than executing them. The first convicts (as opposed to prisoners who were held in domestic jails, although detainees serving penal servitude were also classed as convicts) were shipped to America and the West Indies (sometimes considered as America) in 1615. Movements continued until the Revolutionary War in America caused the British to find new host territories after 1776. Those sentenced thereafter were held in prison hulks moored in the Thames and at Plymouth, Portsmouth, and elsewhere until the first convicts - the First-Fleeters - were transported to Australia in 1787. Second and third fleets followed. The traffic then accelerated and continued ever more efficiently until around 1868, although the sentence of transportation was not abolished until 1887. This pitiful traffic would have been tried in either county Assize courts or Quarter-Sessions, where brief details of their charges would be recorded on indictment slips together with their sentences. The Public Record Office holds most of the Assize records of England and Wales, but surviving Quarter Sessions material will usually have to be sourced at county record offices.

Unfortunately, these trial records rarely, if ever, provide the defendant's age and birthplace, although the place of residence (more probably than the place of birth) at time of trial is shown. The family historian must turn to Gaol Books, held by county record offices. These might help in research. In the case of transportation down-under, it might be worth consulting directly in Australia for further information. Upon arrival, extensive details of convicts were taken and entered into a register. Known as 'Indents' they can provide a wealth of much more precise details for certain areas of Australia. Similar records of the Middlesex Sessions and the Gaol of Newgate are held at the London's Municipal Archives. Of these, the calendars of prisoners tried at the Old Bailey in the 1800s will provide ages of the subjects.

The British government saw convicts as an investment to develop the New World. Each convict transport carried a surgeon. His responsibility was to ensure the well being of convicts en-route to the penal colonies so that they might be landed at their destination in their best productive condition. The reports of these surgeons in the Admiralty series at the Public Record Office begin in 1820. They list the names of sick convicts and guards. Sometimes the reports include the births of their children, but details are very scant and it may be necessary to seek baptismal confirmation from land-based sources at destination.

Prisoners: Records do not survive for every prison in Great Britain, but those that do will provide good vital details, and at least an age and birthplace in some cases. Runs of various registers of the main London jails are held at the Public Record Office, as are a small selection of the registers of some provincial jails. These are more limited in content and in period covered. It is worth remembering that a few prisons in the United Kingdom might still hold some of their original registers. That said, prisons are not research centers. Ideally, it would be wisest to first consult the nearest county record office. However, before venturing too far, it would be worth consulting two excellent indexes, both held in the Home Office series at the Public Record Office.

First, Criminal Registers 1791-1849 Middlesex, listing all persons charged with indictable offense gives name, age, crime, when and where trials and sentencing took place. These may also include other personal information about a subject. Criminal Registers for England & Wales 1805-1892 have similar content. Both make a fine starting point for research. There is an excellent publication, which deals with the subject: Criminal Ancestors by David Hawking, published by Alan Sutton Publishing in association with the Public Record Office.

Those sentenced often lost no time to plead for mercy by petitioning the Home Office for clemency or leniency. These petitions are also filed at the Public Record Office in the Home Office series of records indexed from 1797-1853. They can be a rich source of information about a criminal. It is doubtful that all petitions have survived, but those that have are well worth investigating. They may not always contain specific vital details but may name siblings, family groups, and others supporting the petition, and give a clear indication of where the subject resided.

Apart from convicts and prisoners, Britain is also known for another type of detainee, the wartime alien. Great numbers of German, Austrian, Italian, and other subjects fell foul of British policy in both World War I and II. If they were not removed to special colonies in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, then they were probably under police surveillance at home. What is not often noticed in the Home Office series at the Public Record Office is that there are several thousand internee record cards for the WWII period. Each one gives the name, birthplace, and birth date of recorded subjects, sometimes with additional remarks such as the date of eventual repatriation to their homelands. While not strictly British events, many of these internees remained in Britain to later marry and reproduce.

Other Home Office records embrace excellent records of denizations and naturalizations. Naturalization folders from the late 1800s into the 1900s, and also the attendant Home Office certificates issued after a subject's application was accepted, contain a wealth of vital data about subjects often from some regions, which even today are difficult to research. Probably the greatest number of these are of Jewish subjects from Russia, Poland, Germany, and elsewhere. But a wide spectrum of all nationalities wanting British nationality are represented. This is particularly useful material for Jewish- American historians as many of these subjects or their descendants eventually emigrated to the USA and Canada. (Jewish genealogy is otherwise rather specific. It is best to consult directly with Jewish genealogical societies).

When a marriage was intended, it was usual for Banns to be hung out in the parishes of the would-be bride and groom for three Sundays prior to the marriage. This could be avoided by marriages by license. These enabled services at short notice, or away from usual places of residence or simply for social kudos. A license was only issued after a written allegation of intention to marry was provided by either of the parties wishing to marry, or their representatives. These allegations provide the usual parish of residence and ages. While banns registers have not survived very well and offer little, licenses sometimes provide an age of a subject and a father's name, but marriage allegations actually survive better. These are particularly useful where a subject was a minor. However, not all have survived. Finding them is something else as the records of many authorities may have to be searched.

Bishops' Transcripts are a much- overlooked source of vital details. They were created from copies of parish registers and deposited with the Bishop from time to time. It should be possible to find corresponding entries in both parish registers and Bishops' Transcripts, but this is not always the case. Where a local event cannot be found, then the transcripts might provide vital information. Recording events in this way first started in 1598 and continued into the early 1800s. Little remains of the early records and there are none for the commonwealth period, 1649-1660. There are regional differences in survival rates as well as gaps.

One very good source for marriages, subject to additional searches, is Boyd's Marriage Index. Samuel Boyd was a genealogist of the old school and an early member of the Society of Genealogists. His work is an absolute treasure containing around 7 million entries of marriages in the broad span from 1538 to 1837. The index is divided into certain counties and then subdivided into specific periods, with entries by the names of brides and grooms, which include the parish and year of marriage. It must be stressed that, while this is a magnificent finding aid, it is far from a complete listing and it is wise to also check the actual parish register entry to confirm any facts obtained.

Despite the myths, life in Britain's villages in the good old days was not always good. Nobody was totally free to move from place to place and settle. A move could only be achieved with the agreement of the parish managers who sought, at all costs, to avoid any additional and unnecessary burdens on the poor rate of a parish. From 1691, settlement in another parish could be achieved subject to rent or rate qualifications. It could also be achieved by a subject being apprenticed to a parishioner tradesman, or where one could remain in service for a full year. However, many workers and agricultural laborers did move from place to place with their families, usually on work contracts of 364 days in the year. Anything longer could have rendered the parish to give them automatic settlement. The Settlement Examinations Act of 1662 also empowered justices to order intruders to return to the parish from whence they came. They might also apply for a settlement to enable them to remain in the parish. Interestingly, intruders might also have been called foreigners in earlier times, while foreigners as we know them today were called aliens or strangers. The examination certificates of applicants are incredibly valuable to family historians. They often indicate not just the immediate vital facts pertaining to an applicant, but also to this family and often his immediate ancestors. Trade and military service is also often referred to. The original act, empowering village overseers to administer settlements, was replaced by another in the 1830s when the responsibility passed to the Poor Law Unions. The survival rate varies from district to district and most records are to be found in county record repositories.

Hospital and asylum records today are usually subject to long closure periods of 65-100 years, although it may be possible to obtain limited information upon application by surviving kin. Foundling and childrens' societies records of more recent date are probably also governed by similar rules. However, what can be had may be very revealing if only from a genealogical standpoint. Those who were unable to keep up in society were often caught in the welfare net and ended up in the much feared workhouse or in an asylum. Not all remained in these depressing and sometimes harsh places. Many who did enter were actually admitted, suffering from disease or illness, to the workhouse infirmary rather than from being destitute. Records of these establishments can yield vital facts and can usually be sourced in county record offices. Many also maintained creed registers, which indicated the religious denomination of an inmate.

Children were often victims of circumstances. The Foundling Hospital for the Maintenance & Education of Exposed and Persecuted Children was founded to aid foundlings. It cared for literally thousands of children whose baptisms 1741-1757, 1760, 1770-1838, can be searched at the London Metropolitan Archive. The death rate amongst these waifs was high, but some who survived went on to be apprenticed and hundreds were even reclaimed by their parents. The hospital is known today as the Thomas Coram Foundation for Children. There were many others and some continue to exist today. Records of Dr. Barnado's Homes will already be known to many readers.

Maternity hospitals are quite modern establishments, but Lying-in Hospitals were established as early as the mid-1700s in London and other cities. The most notable is the British Lying-In Hospital, Holborn. This cared chiefly for the distressed poor and particularly for the spouses of sailors and soldiers, but not exclusively so. The records are an excellent source of missing baptisms and migrants. Holborn records cover 1749-1868 and include more than 40,000 admissions and some 30,000 baptisms, not all for Londoners. The International Genealogical Index contains details of these events. The Public Record Office holds the original records while the London Metropolitan Archive has a transcript.

The physical coverage of the established Church in Britain must not be underestimated. Every village and town had one church and cities usually had several. London alone had 103 parishes within one square mile! Each had a minister. The listing of clergy was originally published in Foster's Ecclesiae Anglicanae, but there was also the Clerical Guide and the Clergy List followed by Crockford's Clerical Directory from 1858. This continues today. While the actual age and year of death of men of the cloth is missing for the first 100 years, in Crockfords the entries indicate where a cleric was educated - and until the mid-1800s many were graduates of Oxford or Cambridge Universities - and where he was serving from time to time. Many entries indicate foreign locations and some military facts may also be indicated. There are numerous other sources for researching clergy and lay persons at home and abroad. Much is held by the Guildhall Library in London.