Tanzania during British Mandate

[katjaeb]

I'm needing to get ahold of a marriage record from 1953 in what is now Tanzania. At the time, it was part of the British mandate. The couple in question were Europeans, and I don't know the city or political jurisdiction in which they were married.

Is this even possible? Where might I find records the British kept from that period and place?

(I have already checked with the local Tanzanian consulate and their RITA office with no success.)

[Kevin, now in Chester]

If at least one of the couple was British then you might search the GRO's Consular Marriages 1849 - 1965 on e.g. Find My Past.   The country is made up of the former colonies of mainland Tanganyika and the island chain of Zanzibar and Pemba which combined shortly after independence in the early 1960s to form the modern Tanzania.
If they were of a different European nationality then try that country's consular records.
Good luck with your searches.

[Tangojo]

I too am trying to get a certificate from Tanzania.  My mother was born there in 1949 to English parents.  Like Kat I have had no success with RITA.  To be honest they are a nightmare and no help whatsoever.

[aghadowey]

I too am trying to get a certificate from Tanzania.  My mother was born there in 1949 to English parents.  Like Kat I have had no success with RITA.  To be honest they are a nightmare and no help whatsoever.

Have you tried the Consular Births yet?

Not the actual record but sometimes passenger manifests (entering and leaving the UK) help with details and also newspaper announcements in whatever was the family's local (UK) paper.

[Tangojo]

I too am trying to get a certificate from Tanzania.  My mother was born there in 1949 to English parents.  Like Kat I have had no success with RITA.  To be honest they are a nightmare and no help whatsoever.

Have you tried the Consular Births yet?

Not the actual record but sometimes passenger manifests (entering and leaving the UK) help with details and also newspaper announcements in whatever was the family's local (UK) paper.

Yes, I started off with the GRO, then the British Embassy in Tanzania who said RITA is who I would have to go through.  It's been 2 months of deadends :-(

[aghadowey]

Births weren't always registered immediately- my children were all in primary school when their births had to be registered to get passports (earlier they'd been listed on our passports).

[Kevin, now in Chester]

Assuming the person/people in question have British connections, have you searched Find My Past's "British Nationals Born Overseas 1818-2005"?  My recollection is that all records (bmd) for British Nationals registered overseas, were returned to the GRO annually, so should be in their indexes.  Embassies, High Commissions and Consulates do not necessarily retain historical records.

The Tanzanian Government will hold very few - if any - records from the Colonial Period, for its own Citizens or for British, other Commonwealth or foreign citizens living in either Tanganyika or Zanzibar at that time.  For indigenous people at this time, especially those living in remote villages, birth registrations were simply not necessary or a priority.  Informal arrangements were available should a document be needed at a later date e.g. a Tribal elder might declare that he/she remembered the birth of a given child on a (very) approximate date.

Bear in mind that modern Tanzania is one of the 35 poorest countries on earth, so has very limited resources; I fear RITA's website rather oversells what they can possibly deliver, especially to enquirers.

Kevin now in Chester

 

[Tangojo]

Hi Kevin. 

Thank you for your reply.
My initial search was through Ancestry, FindMyPast, FreeBDM and GRO.  There was nothing anywhere so I ordered a cert through GRO with all the details (except reference numbers).  They came back saying they could find nothing at all.

I then contacted the British Embassy in Tanzania who put me onto RITA.  They have been THE worst agency I have ever had to deal with - emails being undelivered were only the start.
I have emailed them, sent messages on Facebook and Twitter, phoned them, faxed them - anything I could think of. 

I contacted the Tanzanian Embassy, they too said RITA is the only way.  You are absolutely right about their website too - definitely oversells.

[barryd]

It is said that the love of money is the root of all evil. However in genealogy the possession of money by the people you are searching for gives the researcher a better chance of finding them in newspapers etc..

 MASTER --- CREASY. On the 15th September [1869], at Colombo, Robert Pulvertoft, second son of Alfred MASTER, Esq., of Norwich, to Amy, second daughter of the Hon. Sir Edward CREASY, Lord Chief Justice of Ceylon.

East Suffolk Gazette and Beccles And Bungay Weekly News 2 November 1869.