HOW TO FIND YOUR MISSING FAMILY IN INDIA
Focussing largely on British heritage families, Will Barber Taylor looks at the key online resources to help you trace family in India
William Barber Taylor presents a useful round-up of online sources to help step up your search
Ask anyone who has ever done family history and they will all tell you the same thing – that at one time or another they have hit a brick wall. Some relative has seemingly disappeared off the records or a line cannot be traced back further than a particular point. Finding missing members of your family can be particularly tricky if it is not possible to take a trip down to the local archive centre to trawl for yourself. This is often the case if you have ancestors who lived in another country to you, such as India. Millions of people in Britain, America and across the world have ancestors who lived, loved and died in India yet they can find it is tricky to navigate the various collections to find answers to their questions. This guide will break down where you can find information relating to your family in India and give you hints and tricks that will help you to trace your family tree even further back.
There are, of course, a variety of websites that hold information on India and its past. It can often be difficult to know exactly where to start, however whether you are a beginner or more experienced with researching your family history in India then I hope that this guide will offer some insight as to how to trace your family tree as far back as you can. Firstly, here is a breakdown of some of the material that is available online and how best to use it.
Ancestry
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ Births, marriages & deaths
A good place to start off when looking for your family history in India online is Ancestry. The popular genealogical site has a great set of records, particularly for beginners.
• India, Select Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947
• India, Select Marriages, 1792-1948
• India, Select Deaths and Burials, 1719-1948
The India Select Births, Marriages and Deaths are an easy to navigate sets of records and, whilst consisting of selected records with only a transcription of the original record, they are an extremely useful source. Though the records do not fully overlap – with the select Marriage Records beginning in 1792, the Select Births and Baptisms beginning in 1786 and the Select Deaths and Burials in 1719, meaning that the death records begin at an earlier date than the birth or marriage records, making it sometimes difficult to fully research a family’s history – Ancestry’s records are an excellent starting point for research.
East India Company records
Registers of Employees of the East India Company and the India Office, 1746-1939 https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/61468/ Alongside the BMD records are several other impressive collections relating to India, most notably the records of the East India Company and the India Office from 1746 to 1939. What is particularly notable about the East India Company’s records is not simply the scale of them but also the detail of the records. This is because, throughout its history the East India Company and its successor the India Office employed thousands of people and as such will help many people research their family history in India.
The records can help you easily trace the career of your ancestors, as it helped me trace my great-uncle Major Valentine Chiodetti’s various postings in the Army through the records of the India List Civil and Military contained within the Registers of Employees of the East India Company and the India Office, 1746-1939. As such it can help you easily find out about their career and help you find
out where they were serving in the civil service, medical establishment, or the military.
If you can trace your ancestors further back, the records can often become more, rather than less, useful. This is because in the early days of the East India Company, the company liked to keep close records of the births, deaths, and marriages of its employees. This can be invaluable in helping to break down a brick wall in your research as often the East India Company’s record of the event is the only one available online.
Dutch East India Crew Index
Dutch East India Crew Index 1633 – 1795 https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/61290/
Ancestry also has the records of the Dutch East India’s Crew Index for 1633 to 1795 available. Whilst not as detailed as the British East India Company’s records and focusing more on arrivals and departures, rather than on the lives of employees as the EIC records do, they are none the less an impressive index that can help locate when precisely your ancestor entered or left India during the early part of European occupation.
Findmypast
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/ Births, marriages & deaths – with original images British India Office Births & Baptisms – https://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-worldrecords/british-india-office-birthsand-baptisms British India Office Marriages – https://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-records/british-indiaoffice-marriages British India Office Deaths & Burials – https://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-records/britishindia-office-deaths-and-burials Findmypast has similar Birth, Marriage and Death collection sets to Ancestry but with one crucial asset – if you use Findmypast you’ll be able to access images of the original document which can be valuable to find out more about your ancestors. Findmypast’s British India Office Births & Baptisms, British India Office Marriages and British India Office Deaths & Burials are therefore an extraordinary resource. Whilst Ancestry does also have some of the same records as Findmypast, the original images provided by Findmypast allow you to see the occupations of your ancestors, their religion and, in the case of marriages, who witnessed them. The often tightknit communities in parts of India means that witnesses, whether related to the couple or merely friends, can prove extremely useful in tracing the specific regiment of a family member or what their wider social circle was.
The ability to find witnesses on marriage records proved invaluable to me when attempting to find evidence of my elusive great-grandparents. There had been family talk of my great-grandmother being raised by Seventh Day Adventists. Using the names of my great-grandparents’ witnesses, William Charles and Ellen Donaldson, and comparing them to records of the Seventh Day Adventists living in the area that they married in, I was able to confirm the family rumour.
India Office wills
British India Office Wills & Probate Collection 1749 – 1947 https://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-records/british-indiaoffice-wills-and-probate
The other most valuable set of records Findmypast has is a set of wills from the India Office dating from the 1700s right up to the 1930s. The British India Office Wills & Probate Collection 1749-1947 is therefore an invaluable collection for any family
researcher. Whilst it is unfortunate that Findmypast haven’t provided transcriptions for many of the wills that have spidery handwriting, through deciphering the wills you can help further build up your family tree and also find out the exact amount of money owed and left as well.
At times, the religious or financial disagreements between family members – such as featured in the 1849 will of my ancestor Julian Boilard which included his less than pleasant assessment of his children’s financial abilities – can be found. Wills are pure research gold for the family researcher.
British in India, British in India Directories, Civil Service Pensions
Other smaller record sets are equally beneficial. The British in India record set on Findmypast, though small, ranges from 1671 to 1961 and if your ancestors are included in this set then you may be in luck as each mini biography contained in the record set can provide information on where or when an individual was born and who they married, their children, who their siblings married and even their occupations. Similarly, the British in India Directories of 1792 to 1948 as well as the variety of Civil Service Pensions sets, whilst small in comparison to other records sets, are invaluable for placing your ancestor’s occupation, where they lived and how long they had worked in their field. This allows you to potentially build up your family tree and to flesh it out and find out more about individual ancestor’s lives.
FIBIS
The Families in British India Society: https://www.fibis.org/
The Families in British India Society, or FIBIS, is one of the best resources on the internet for those researching their family tree in India. You can search the majority of the FIBIS archive for free without having to pay for the privilege. FIBIS’ records contain similar information to Findmypast and Ancestry, but they also have more niche collections as well such as the Agra Fort Census of July 1857, taken during the Indian Mutiny of that year, and the Register of Bombay Army European Soldiers from 1793 to 1839. These types of record sets are particularly unique to India and as such are particularly valuable in helping to pinpoint your ancestor at precise moments, such as during the Indian Mutiny, or when they joined the Army and where.
If you subscribe to FIBIS then you will also be able to access exclusive content such as the highly informative FIBIS forums as well as the FIBIS journal, a bi-yearly publication that features articles about all aspects of family history in India. The publication has a wealth of richly informative articles that may prove useful in unlocking your family in India. Also among the spaces that you can only access as a member of FIBIS are the group discussion section, lists of European Inhabitants of Bengal and Madras in the early 19th century, the John Morgan Photograph collection containing many pictures from the 19th and 20th century unavailable anywhere else and many other exclusive record sets. It is these kind of niche collections that helps set FIBIS apart from other sites.
FIBIS’ more specialist collections are excellent for taking your family tree
in India further than you might have thought possible and the ability to search the site for free without having a subscription is a welcome bonus for those starting out on their journey to find their family tree in India.
BACSA
The British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia : https://www.bacsa.org.uk/
The British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia is another fascinating site that is key to uncovering more about your family. Whilst the site is limited to approximately 50,000 burials across India, Burma, Southeast Asia and Japan, it is very useful for locating where your ancestors were buried and also gives an indication as to which relative was responsible for their burial and in some instances how they died.
Grave inscriptions can also be extremely useful for uncovering ancestors that don’t appear in other records – through BACSA I discovered my 4x great-uncle Gabriel Chiodetti, whose brief life is only recorded via his graveside inscription. BACSA, like other websites mentioned through this piece, does offer a subscription service which allows access to books and magazines useful for research. However, like FIBIS, it’s possible to search the majority of its archive entirely free. This means that if you’re unsure as to whether your ancestor is
included in their records, it won't cost you anything to search.
The Anglo Burmese Library
https://www.angloburmeselibrary.com/
Whilst Myanmar or Burma, as it was known during most of the British occupation, is no longer a part of India, many people living in India would regularly cross between Burma and India meaning that if your ancestors lived in what was then categorised as part of Britain's Indian Empire they may have lived in Burma.
Whilst most births, marriages and deaths for Burma are available on other sites such as Ancestry and Findmypast, other records such as the 1942 list of evacuees from Burma to India during the Japanese invasion or company records for the Burmah Oil Company and others are not available anywhere else other than through the Anglo Burmese Library.
The site leans more towards those who have a subscription and many of the site's BMDS are behind the subscription wall. However, the 1942 evacuees' list is freely available and is an exceptionally useful guide for tracing your relatives who may have had to have leave the country during the Second World War. The list provides the names and size of the families of those leaving and their occupation, their current address, and the address they will be staying at once they reach India.
The evacuation list was invaluable for me to understand how my greatgrandparents were able to leave their home and escape capture or murder during the Japanese invasion and the information provided helped me to make sense of stories passed on through the family – the list may similarly prove useful if your family lived in Burma at the time.
British Newspaper Archive
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/ & https://www.findmypast.co.uk/
The British Newspaper Archive is a key resource if you are attempting to find ancestors in India. The archive contains an array of newspapers such as Homeward Mail from India, China and the East, Englishman’s Overland Mail, Madras Weekly Mail and many others which were printed in India.
The newspapers can provide insight into remarkable instances that involve your ancestor that have not been recorded elsewhere. They may also provide records of births, marriages, and deaths. They are particularly useful if you want to find out exactly when your ancestors came to or left India as they provide regular and full accounts of passengers' journeys and who was onboard ships when the ships departed. If your ancestor was employed by the government or Army there is also a good chance that their career trajectory will be recorded in the pages of the newspapers as the announcement of promotions were regular features in each of the Indian papers.
Whilst the majority of the British Newspaper Archives material is available only via subscription you can still search the site without one to see if any of your ancestors are mentioned in particular papers. The information that can be gleaned from newspaper reports truly is invaluable and well worth utilising as it may very well break down a brick wall in your research and make your ancestor seem more alive than ever before.
Other important tips
When searching for your ancestors in India it is important to remember just how much of a crossroads the country was during the past.
One of the issues that has hampered family historians searching for their family in India is to presume that they must be British when in fact India had large French, Portuguese, and Dutch populations with significant minority populations from other countries including Italy, Germany and America.
Similarly, travel across the subcontinent was not as uncommon as might be presumed particularly for families that had acting military service personnel amongst them. That said it can be a good rule of thumb to exclude a potential ancestor based on the fact that they are born in another part of the country to your own. However, the continual movement of the British Army in India meant that children could regularly be born in locations far removed to where their parents were married, or their siblings were born.
Although this may seem to make things more complicated, the mixture of records available for India, not simply BMDS but also Army service records, reporting in newspapers and pension records can help provide a far fuller picture of the life of your ancestor than they might have had if they had lived elsewhere.
Family from India
It is also crucial to keep in mind that whilst most BMD record sets do not contain a great deal of information on family from India they are not absent from the records. Many who served the British Army or Civil Service have their birth, marriage and death records in record sets on Ancestry and Findmypast, although again these sets are not complete. If your ancestors were members of the Hindu faith, then it is possible to find more detailed records. The Hindu Pilgrim Records of Familysearch date from 1194 to 2015 and often contain detailed genealogical information as well as records of births, marriage and deaths relating to families going on pilgrimage. As such it is a set that is well worth browsing (the records are not name searchable). It is useful to know the name and place of birth for the person you are searching on, and, if possible, the year in which they undertook a pilgrimage.
Family register
A particularly rare but effective source can be the family register – one came into my possession written by my ancestor Samuel Dacosta and it proved to be a worthwhile source of information providing some insight into the personalities of members of his family.
Whilst tracing your missing family in India can seem like an exhaustive task at times, it is truly rewarding and thanks to the breadth of material available online it is much easier than at any previous time. Hopefully, this guide will have illuminated some ways that will help you finally break down that brick wall and find your missing family in India.
About the author
Will Barber Taylor has recently graduated from the University of Warwick with a degree in History. He is also the host of the British political podcast The Debated Podcast.