Group of British and American nationals to visit state capital

LUCKNOW :A group of British and American nationals are set to visit the state capital in October end this year in search of the graves of their ancestors posted in India during British regime. The grand tour would be led by secretary of British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia, British Scholar and an expert on Lucknow’s history and culture Dr Rosie Llewellyn Jones.

Jones said the tour was long awaited but following the technical reasons, it couldn’t take off. “It’s going to be a unique tour where people of British and American origin would be tracing their roots in Lucknow and also would be re-establishing their connections with India,” she added. She said in the pre-independence era, there were many people of British and American origin who got posted in India and spent their entire lives here.

There are less than 10% of the biographical sources available in India Office Records. It includes the records of the civil servants, military personnel, mariners, medical staffs, chaplains, railway workers, law enforcers and nonofficial inhabitants such as merchants, planters, free mariners and missionaries.

“Many of them died in India and got buried in the cemeteries here. The aim of the tour is to help the group in tracing the graves of their ancestors,” she added. The theme of the tour is Imperial India: Find your ancestors. She said the group would be visiting Nishatganj cemetery, Mall Avenue cemetery, Residency cemetery and other old British cemeteries in the state capital and also the neighbouring districts.