Dear List I have sent to Cathy Day long back the photocopies of the Register of Burials kept at the Calcutta Cemetery, and the same could be with FIBIS. Check if they match. rgds Ronnie Johnson

Hello List Annie said: I am trying to research a Thomas Pittman sergeant in H.M. Royal Regt. I have found his marriage to Emelia (Amelia) Horn at St.Johns Church,Trichinopoly - 9th April 1823 & the baptism of a daughter Frances Rofs ? - 3rd July 1824 Trichinopoly. Firstly can one of you kind folk tell me so as I can at somepoint search the muster rolls whether his regiment-H.M.Royal Regt. is the Royal regt. of artillery/royal horse artillery.H.M. Royal Regt.of foot(1st of foot).Or as one of the National Archive assistants told me after searching a reference book The Royal horse guards - the blues ????? I'm totally confused & can't research his army career without clarification. Also can I ask anyone if St Johns Church is still standing & being used as a house of worship in Trichinopoly today ????. http://books.google.com/books?id=IrlCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA236 says 1821 In August of the following year His Majesty King George IV. was pleased to approve of the regiment resuming its designation of the " First, Or The Royal, Regiment Of Foot," instead of the " First, Or Royal Scots, Regiment Of Foot." 1824 The 2nd battalion remained stationary at Tritchanopoly until June, 1824, when it marched to Madras This link is taken from Cannon's book from the FIBIS FIbiwiki page 1st Regiment of Foot http://wiki.fibis.org/index.php?title=1st_Regiment_of_Foot This link is for the Church of South India, Diocese of Tiruchy http://www.csittd.com/contact%20us.htm and this link is Trichinopoly from the FIBIS Fibiwiki http://wiki.fibis.org/index.php?title=Trichinopoly Cheers Maureen (Sydney)

Just an aside here - might the daughter be Frances Ross. Old English spelling often show ff or even fs as what we now know the sound of ss. Marcia

Hello List Some editions of the Calcutta Gazette, and the Gazette of India, both government publications where official information was 'gazetted' are available as searchable pdf files on "DSpace at West Bengal State Central Library" which is the Digital repository of the 'West Bengal Public Library Network' , a joint effort of public Libraries of West Bengal. http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in/dspace/items-by-subject?subject=GAZETTEERS or http://tinyurl.com/27n8roq These publications contain information about matters such as appointments, promotions, awards etc. A more extensive range of volumes is available on the Digital Library of India website which unfortunately are not searchable. This information has been added to the FIBIS Fibiwiki page "Newspapers and journals online" http://wiki.fibis.org/index.php?title=Newspapers_and_journals_online or http://tinyurl.com/27xax6s Cheers Maureen (Sydney)

I have photographs of two pages of the burial register at Lower Circular Road cemetery, Calcutta for January 15th - 19th 1930 and May 10th - 13th 1934. I have only these two pages and no more, nor am I likely to get any more. I have transcribed the details below. I'm sorry but I cannot take private requests for any more information other than that which is transcribed. I will however be happy to share the photographs - privately and off list - with anyone who has a personal genealogical interest in any of the burials. I also have four good quality photographs of headstones (unrelated to the photographed registers), that were taken near to my grandparents plot. These photos are not close ups, but the wording is clear enough, especially if digitally magnified. Again, I will happily share these photos off list with anyone who can show a personal interest. Again, I'm sorry, but I will not respond to speculative requests. For anyone who is going to India for such research, the method of gaining this information is easy enough. One needs to present oneself at the gatehouse of LCR cemetery armed with accurate dates of death and ideally, burial, then ask the watchman (Chowkidar) to check the registers and if found (very likely if your names and dates are correct), you will be led to the plot. A small tip will help the process. As far as I know, the registers are not yet searchable for speculative research, although I do believe there is an ongoing project to record them digitally and allow full cross referenced online searches to occur. I know no more than this. For transcription purposes the information is organised as follows - Names > Date of interment > Serial No. On the actual registers, the information is presented thus: Serial No. > Date of Interment > Names. This is then followed by the complex location information that is needed to find the graves. This is not needed for transcription as all any visitor needs are the names and date of interment (burial). The serial number may help speed up the process. Further, there may be more burials for the first and last dates indicated, but if so, they will appear on previous or succeeding pages, for which I have no photographs. Finally please forgive any transcription errors; the writing is very clear, but some of the spellings of Indian names may be incorrect. I hope these help someone as I have been delighted to receive my grandparents information. Transcripts: January 15th - 19th 1930 FERGUSON, Edwin Thomas 15/01/30 37268 BASS, Ishan, Chandra (Revd) 16/01/30 37269 TAYLOR, Leonard 16/01/30 37270 HARRIS, Louisa 16/01/30 37271 MASKELL, Lucy Catherine 16/01/30 37272 YOUNG, Ermyn J 17/01/30 37273 HORNSBY, Arthur Coryden 18/01/30 37274 PETERS Maggie 18/01/30 37275 PUSHONG, Trevor Anthony 19/01/30 37276 HARRIS, R 19/01/30 37277 PERREIRA (UBC) 19/01/30 37278 SUBORNO, Dorothy Matilda 19/01/30 37279 D'SILVA, A 19/01/30 37280 Transcripts: May 10th - 13th 1934 GOMES, Michael 10/05/34 41268 FERGUSON, Mary Alice Catherine 10/05/34 41269 SUBARNO, Mary Michael 10/05/34 41270 BLAIR, Lt.Col. George Alexander 11/05/34 41271 ALCHIN, John Storey 11/05/34 41272 STIMSON, Nancy 11/05/34 41273 ANTHONIAWAL 11/05/34 41274 GLASS, Jane 12/05/34 41275 HARRY 12/05/34 41276 PETERS, Marguerite 12/05/34 41277 PETER, Paul 13/05/34 41278 DAVIDSON, Aileen, Vera 13/05/34 41279 GAYNOR, John Adolphus 13/05/34 41280 Headstones (legible only using digital magnification) MATTHEW, Delphine, Alma (b.1934) O'BRIEN, Arthur Cecil (d. Jul. 1934) AUGUST, Richard GORHAM, Ezekiel (d. 21 Jul 1850). (note - a Jewish burial) Angus Ferguson (Researching: FERGUSON and related families - UNGER, O'BRIEN, WATSON, MONK, MORGAN, WHYBROW, STROUD, PACHECO, BUTLER, GOODHALL, RAMSDEN, RIDGE, GROWESTON, ROSE)

Greetings.I am trying to research a Thomas Pittman sergeant in H.M. Royal Regt. I have found his marriage to Emelia (Amelia) Horn at St.Johns Church,Trichinopoly - 9th April 1823 & the baptism of a daughter Frances Rofs ? - 3rd July 1824 Trichinopoly. Firstly can one of you kind folk tell me so as I can at somepoint search the muster rolls whether his regiment-H.M.Royal Regt. is the Royal regt. of artillery/royal horse artillery.H.M. Royal Regt.of foot(1st of foot).Or as one of the National Archive assistants told me after searching a reference book The Royal horse guards - the blues ????? I'm totally confused & can't research his army career without clarification. Also can I ask anyone if St Johns Church is still standing & being used as a house of worship in Trichinopoly today ????. I plan to visit that part of the country soon & am trying to take in a few ancestral ' haunts ' so to speak. Anyone throwing anymore light onto Thomas Pittmans life would be most appreciated.

Further to my request re the availability of Civil Lists for Uncovenanted Civil Servants {V/13 series?] for the time period 1860-1875, would there likely be records of Writers in the Police Dept in the records listed below please. a.. L/AG/20/1/6-151, Civil Leave Pay Books 1860-1963, mainly Imperial and Provincial Services. a.. L/AG/34/14A, Deaths in the Uncovenanted Service in India 1870-1949, for all (European) grades My John Lynch Jnr. a Writer in the Dawk Bearer Department was found in the L/F/10 series for 1866 but unfortunately these records jump to 1878 for the next listing. He was not found in 1875 Hyderabad list V/13 series so perhaps he died prior to this or was no longer in this department, so I am hoping he may appear in any of the above records. John Thorpe Jnr. was born 1829 to John Thorpe & Paulina. Thank you Joan -- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter. We are a community of 7 million users fighting spam. SPAMfighter has removed 1101 of my spam emails to date. Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len The Professional version does not have this message

Hello list Maureen said "On reflection, I am doubtful that an Army officer, even if an officer of the Reserve, would be called a "Soldier". I think his rank would be given. Therefore , unless Liam has some definite evidence that AIRO in this case refers to "Army in India Reserve of Officers", I suspect AIRO may refer to something else." I have several relatives who were in the Reserve of Officers in India before, during and after WW1. It was known officially as IARO, Indian Army Reserve of Officers - not AIRO. I agree with Maureen's conclusion. All the best Peter (Auckland)

In a message dated 11/4/2010 12:57:27 PM Eastern Daylight Time, annieallz@hotmail.com writes: Firstly can one of you kind folk tell me so as I can at somepoint search the muster rolls whether his regiment-H.M.Royal Regt. is the Royal regt. of artillery/royal horse artillery.H.M. Royal Regt.of foot(1st of foot).Or as one of the National Archive assistants told me after searching a reference book The Royal horse guards - the blues ????? Generally speaking, the Royal Regiment refers to the 1st Foot. It would be unusual to refer to the Royal Artillery as the Royal Regiment. The Horse Guards would not have seen service in India during the time period you are referring to, so I think you can rule them out. I would look to the muster rolls of the 1st Foot. Tim B.

Are the above Civil Lists for Uncovenanted Civil servants only available at the British Library please. I am looking for the time period 1860-1875 approximately. Thank you Joan -- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter. We are a community of 7 million users fighting spam. SPAMfighter has removed 1101 of my spam emails to date. Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len The Professional version does not have this message

Hi Joan, Only one of my ancestors appears in the "Deaths in the Uncovenanted Service". The record I have is a monthly return dated 28th July 1906 from the Secretary to the Government of India to H.M.'s Under-Secretary of State for India. In this instance there are five deaths shown for the month of May. Mrs Beevers, pensioner, Kamptee Mr R.T.B. Blake, Officiating Inspector of Police, Bassein Mr T.L. Jones, Jailor 3rd grade Rangoon Mr G.H. Rider, Jailor 2nd grade Bassein Mr J.H. Bower, pensioner, Bhagalpur. My ancestor, George Rider, had been born in Australia of English parents (from Devon) and passed examinations (at an undisclosed location) in order to obtain the post of Provincial Sorting Clerk in the Post Office Department. I have numerous other people in my tree who held similar posts at the same time or later, but George is unique among them in appearing in L/AG/34/14A lists. These others must also have had to pass examinations. The only difference I can see is that he can be proved to be born of wholly English parents. One has to also ask why these records were deemed of such importance as to be sent to the Under-Secretary of State, when there were many deaths of people of higher rank than these which were not reported like this. It seems to me the answer lies in the subtext "for all (European) grades" . My interpretation is that the report fills the same function as present-day reports from Embassies of the deaths of British Citizens in foreign territory. So the answer to your question whether John Thorpe (Lynch?) appears in these records would depend not only on his parentage, but also whether he was registered as a British (or other European) Citizen. His grade certainly qualifies him. good luck, Mark

Hello List I previously made some comments in response to Liam who said: Has anyone tracked down any records of the Army of Indian Reservist Officers at all? I have a relative in Poona between 1900-1945, who was recorded in 1942 as 'Soldier AIRO', called David Lumsden that I am trying to trace. On reflection, I am doubtful that an Army officer, even if an officer of the Reserve, would be called a "Soldier". I think his rank would be given. Therefore , unless Liam has some definite evidence that AIRO in this case refers to "Army in India Reserve of Officers", I suspect AIRO may refer to something else. Cheers Maureen (Sydney)

Hello List This is a repost of a reply I sent yesterday which seems to have disappeared, as I have now received from the List an email I sent today. Liam said: Has anyone tracked down any records of the Army of Indian Reservist Officers at all? I have a relative in Poona between 1900-1945, who was recorded in 1942 as 'Soldier AIRO', called David Lumsden that I am trying to trace. The British Library has some India Office records called Indian Army Records of Service IOR/L/MIL/14/239/1-72481 c1901-1947.See the FIBIS Fibiwiki page Indian Army http://wiki.fibis.org/index.php?title=Indian_Army. These records may contain reservists. However, these are restricted records as the closure period for these files has been set at 75 years from the date of entry of the serviceman/woman into the service. The files are opened on an annual basis, so currently files are not available for persons who joined after 1934. So if David Lumsden only joined the Army in India Reserve of Officers during the World War 2, then his records would not be available for some years. However the Reserve of Officers was a permanent establishment, and given his age, he may have been a member before 1934. There is a list available of the opened records. For background information, the British Library also has some Military records Collection 397 Reserve of Officers IOR/L/MIL/7/16215-16279 1886-1940 which includes, for the World War 2 period, Collection 397/63 Reorganisation of Army in India Reserve of Officers: terms of service, liability to recall, etc. IOR/L/MIL/7/16276 1934-1940 and Collection 397/64 Formation (and 1948 disbandment) of Indian regular reserve of officers. IOR/L/MIL/7/16277 1931-1948. Also Regulations for the Army in India Reserve of Officers 1939. Delhi: Defence Dept, 1939. IOR/L/MIL/17/5/654 1939 Cheers Maureen (Sydney)

Hello List Frances said: I am trying to find out more about the above-referenced person.[Col. Lawtie] I know he was active and living in Calcutta in 1794. I have found mentions of a Lieutenant-Colonel Lawtie in googlebooks. I was wondering how I could find out more about this person--like his first name, when he went out to India, and so forth. I am specifically looking for a military person by the name of Lawtie and the rank of colonel or lieutenant-col. There is a James Lawtie mentioned in the following link-Bengal Officers (Archive.org) http://www.archive.org/stream/alphabeticallist00dodwrich#page/160/mode/2up/s earch/Lawtie or http://tinyurl.com/2edzlxh He went to India 1778, Lieut-Colonel 1804, retired 1811 The British Library has the following reference under Cadet papers: Lawtie, James IOR/L/MIL/9/255/15, 18 Cheers Maureen (Sydney)

Family search (Beta) gives the following, which may be your man, but only an initial, no full name! This man was a Lieutenant according to the record P. Lawtie India Deaths and Burials, 1719-1948     record title:India Deaths and Burials, 1719-1948name:P. Lawtiegender:Maleburial date:06 Apr 1815burial place:Fort William, Bengal, Indiaoccupation:Lieut.race:Whitemarital status:Unknownindexing project (batch) number:B39313-9system origin:India-EASysource film number:498957 Cheers De in Aus Searching for RAYMOND, HARDIE, BURNS, WALLIS, DAVIDSON, WHITE, ALLEN, OWEN/S, LARENGO, PATHE, SCOTT, WICKENS, MAYBERY, WILKINS.

I have just come across my ninth UK census search that has revealed unexpected additional information about family born in India. These were mostly children that had been sent to the UK to stay with a relative for their education. It is important to note that the place of birth is usually given as 'East Indies'. The first two were in St Andrews, Scotland, where teenage boys (only) were sent to stay with members of the DEMPSTER family. The head of the household is recorded as a boarding house proprietor. The house on North Street where they stayed is now run as a 'bed and breakfast'. The third was an English house where family stayed with an aunt during their holidays, it must have been pretty big to accommodate them all together with the servants. The most useful, for us, was the Church Missionary Children's Home in London. This was a boarding school for the children of missionaries who were sent 'home' to school. It must have been very hard for both children and parents as some were a young as five. Most did not see each other for several years. Three children of the SCHURR family were found there including my wife's g-grandmother Katherine Ethelberta S. The latest find was family that was related to Maj. Gen. William INNES (my wife's 3g-grandfather). He had retired to Bath in England (a popular retirement city) with his wife, Eliza Helen nee RAWSTORNE . He died in 1850. The next year was census year and his wife was still in the same house, now with a number single relatives including three ex-patriot girls at school. That creates some work as most are new to me and born before UK statutory recording. On a cautionary note, the spelling of her name was given as INNIS; this was because the enumerator who visited the house had used his own phonetic version. That should be remembered and wild cards used when searches draw a blank. One other search gave a strange result as a transcriber got it all wrong and so the search engine could not possibly get the correct answer. That was only resolved by viewing the original image. Basic Census searches can be made for free but details require a subscription or pay-per-view. www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/census-records.htm I hope that this note may give a few ideas for getting past, through or over brick walls. -- Dave Barnett

I am trying to find out more about the above-referenced person. I know he was active and living in Calcutta in 1794. I have found mentions of a Lieutenant-Colonel Lawtie in googlebooks. I was wondering how I could find out more about this person--like his first name, when he went out to India, and so forth. I am specifically looking for a military person by the name of Lawtie and the rank of colonel or lieutenant-col. All help greatly appreciated.

Has anyone tracked down any records of the Army of Indian Reservist Officers at all? I have a relative in Poona between 1900-1945, who was recorded in 1942 as 'Soldier AIRO', called David Lumsden that I am trying to trace. I have looked in all the usual places, but cant seem to find anything? Any help greatly appreciated Liam

Has anyone managed to track down any School records for India? I am interested in School records between 1910-1925, when I believe that my relatives below went to a convent school in Poona. Maud Lumsden b.1904 Ethel Lumsden b.1912 Grace Lumsden b.1916 I have emailed many of the existing convents in Poona, including the most likely which is Convent of Jesus & Mary, but have had no replies. Any help greatly appreciated Liam

Dear Geri - I have enjoyed your site - and looking through it came across the surname KOUWEN in the Twigg tree.    Could not locate it though - could you help me with this - the name is Dutch and I have researched as far back as 1806 to a marriage in Vepery.   Very many thanks - Thelma.