India

Introduction

Britain has a long association with the Indian sub-continent, dating to the 17th century when trading posts were first established under the control of the East India Company. Consequently, there has been a similarly long tradition of migration in both directions. Although we traditionally associate migration from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka as a mid-twentieth century phenomenon, there have been large numbers of settlers in Britain since the 19th century, if not before.

Getting started

As with all pieces of research, you need to start with the basics before heading back into official records in archives. The best thing to do is to ask your family what they know about their relatives and experiences, both in Britain and back on the sub-continent. This will probably lead you to cousins, uncles and aunts who probably still reside overseas, and who will be able to tell you about their own roots. However, herein lies the challenge of researching ancestors who came to Britain; a certain amount of travel, and therefore time and expense, is involved, unless you decide to hire a local researcher to do the digging for you and report back on their finds. Whilst there are some record sets you will need to examine in the UK, they tend to be much further back in time and so you should be prepared to spend some time back out in the country of your ancestors' origin.

Finding the records

Before Independence and Partition in 1947, when Pakistan and eventually Bangladesh were formed, the sub-continent of India was under the control of the British, firstly run by the East India Company from the 18th century until 1858, and thereafter directly by the British government. Consequently, many of the records that you will need to examine will be divided across archives both inside and outside Britain. The records of the East India Company can now be found at the Oriental and India Office Library, which is part of the British Library, alongside public records and administrative material created by the India Office. This is the main collection of records in the UK that contain biographical data about people who worked for the British, though the surviving material is heavily skewed in favour of British natives who went out to serve in India. Consequently, the biographical index contains more British and Anglo-Indian names than native Indian, as it is compiled from sources such as the birth, marriage and death indexes for the three main Presidencies that Britain controlled, namely Bengal, Madras and Bombay. Many of these records are available online via the India Office Family History Search (http://indiafamily.bl.uk/UI/) on the British Library website.

Of course, anyone who settled in Britain would have left a record in official sources, so 19th and early 20th century immigrants from the sub-continent should appear in the indexes for birth, marriage and death certificates, census returns and possibly naturalization records. Yet problems start to occur when you need to make the leap back across, and without a place of birth or residence in India, it can be very hard to track down any further generations. The name of an individual can at least narrow down which region you are likely to need to focus on in your research, but the bottom line is that you are going to have to head to the relevant archive. The National Archives of India were established in 1891, and hold records of central administration, including pre-1947 census returns. Records of birth, marriage and death will be at the appropriate municipal registry. You can find similar material for Pakistan and Bangladesh, not forgetting that the former was only created in 1947 at Partition, whilst the latter was formerly East Pakistan until 1972. Contact details for these organisations are to be found on the website www.movinghere.org.uk, along with further background information on the geographical history of the region.

If your ancestors moved back and forth between India and the UK, for example as members of the civil service, it is worth searching for them on UK outbound passenger lists, which can be found at www.ancestorsonboard.com.

Records at the Oriental and India Office

Bearing in mind the bias of the records towards Britons and Europeans living and working in India, it is still worth examining the archives at the Oriental and India Office Library. One reason is that many native Indians joined the British Armed Forces, or served in a native regiment for the East India Company. Some of the service records still survive. Similarly, employment records for native Indians who joined the British civil service can be unearthed, particularly if they rose to hold high rank in society. Many people who set up commercially in private trade can be traced through trade directories such as Thacker's, whilst the Oriental and India Office library's reference section contains biographies, guides and other works that can be used to find out more about your ancestors, and where they lived.

Find out more

About the author

Dr Nick Barratt worked at the Public Record Office (now The National Archives, or TNA) from 1996 to 2000, with the family history team. He has given many talks on family history, and has written frequently for the TNA's genealogy journal, Ancestors. He has worked for the BBC as a specialist researcher on programmes such as 'One Foot in the Past','The People Detective' and 'Who Do You Think you Are?'.