East India Company
Many British
subjects went to India or other "colonies" that were administered by
the Honourable East India Company (H.E.I.C.). Records of baptism, marriage,
burial, and probate have been gathered from ministers in the East (mostly India)
for British subjects. They have been indexed by geographic area. India is
divided in three presidencies-Bengal, Bombay, and Madras. The REGISTER listed
below gives the call number of the gazetteer and has a general map showing the
approximate boundaries. The REGISTER lists other countries also gathered as
part of the HEIC records.
Many of those
listed are British Army personnel, but many are civil servants and businessmen
in India who chose to have their children baptized or their family members buried
by a British minister. Most of the British in the Far East up to 1900 (and many
later) are listed in these records.
Extract from
outline to British Army records:
C. Honourable East
India Company
1. India Office Library
a. Majority of pre-1060
records at India Office library
b. catalog of India
Office holdings in 942.1/L1 A3f
2. Amalgamated into British Army in 1860
a. see transfers
from Indian to British Army in India Office
Library
under "British Army"
b See balance of
outline after 1860, though useful inforrnation
still
may be found at India Office library
3. Records of baptisms, marriages & burials
a. see Register of India
Office Record (REG 942 D23ei, on British Register table) for call numbers of
films (at FHL!)
b. 1713-1948
c. by Presidency in
India
d. Several small
registers from other countries/islands detailed
in
Register of India Office Record (REG 942 D23ei)
e. Roman Catholic
1777-1884 (see REG 942 D23ei)
f. see section VIII
Old
4 Wills
a. same as 3a above
b. 1710-1937
c. by Presidency
5. Hospital Records
a. at Central Library,
Poplar & Commonwealth Relations Office in London
b. no detail on content
6. All Saints Poplar parish records
a. parish for East India
docks
b. parish for East India
hospital (for widows)
c. records at FHL
i.
Extracts of parish records
a.
942.1/P2 K29p
b.
1584-1799
c.
indexed
ii.
journal of occurrences, E.I.C. almshouses
a.
1816-1847
b.
applications for housing, vital records
c.
film 569205, item 2
iii.
Other parish records, including several non-conformist
a.
see parish and vital records listing under London,
Poplar
b.
Computer catalog under Middlesex, Poplar
7. Musters in India
a.
W.O. 16/2751-2887
b. 1083-1889 .
8. Other mentions in this outline .
942.1/Ll A3ar
Handlist
of Unpublished finding aids to the London Collection of the British Library
942.1/L1 A3sg A Guide to the India Office Library
942.1/L1
A3m A
General Guide to the India Office Records
Other Call numbers:
942.1/Ll A3r Portraits in the India Office Library and Records
942.1/Ll A3bld India Office Library and Records (Annual Report)
942.1/LI J55n India Office Newsletter
You must be familiar with
the following sources!
954 E5t
Gazetteer
of the East India Company (in British Collection, despite call number). An
essential gazetteer of place names in India as seen by the British Occupation
Government.
British Library Oriental Collections web site (www.bl.uk/collections/orientaloffice.html)
REG 942 D23ei Register of India Office Record (the key to the records of
baptism, marriage, burial, marine, probate and other).