I am new to this list, and am hoping someone can help me find information on my gg grandfather. Family legend states that John WHITTAKER left Yorkshire, England around 1857 or 1858 and went to India where he was working on building a railway bridge, and was robbed and murdered by his servant during an uprising. At first we thought he died during the Indian Mutiny of 1857 / 1858, but then we discovered he was still alive and working until the mid 1860s. He was a joiner, cabinetmaker, builder by occupation and we found him working under contract to Lee, Watson & Aiton, and then Wythes & Jackson in the building of the Indian Railways. There is a book out about Building the Railways of the Raj where these companies are apparently mentioned, but the book is out of print and I am unable to find an affordable copy to purchase. I tried my local library, but they could not find a copy either. Then in Google Books we find him having felled a large quantity of trees for building of the railways, and unable to pay for them as he had declared bankruptcy. In England debtors who went bankrupt went to court and then to Debtor's Jail. Was this law the same in India? If so are there court records in India where one might find this information? There is a John WHITTAKER listed on FIBIS who died at age 37 on Sept. 17, 1865 of a disease of the brain. It states he died at York Cottage in Parell, Bombay, and was part of a company called Lawson and Whittaker Gasworks contractors. Further research has shown that this man was buried in Back Bay cemetery in Bombay. So, this could be our ancestor as the age is about right and the employment in India as a gas contractor is feasible, as he could likely have started back in business this time in gas works contracting after going bankrupt a couple of years earlier. I also read in Google Books that there was an English cemetery at Back Bay in Bombay which closed prior to 1889, although I couldn't find an exact date as to when it closed. If our John WHITTAKER is buried there I would like to find him. Are there any memorial inscriptions or is there burial information and / or death records for 1865 for this cemetery? He was Church of England when he lived in Yorkshire. Could there have been a newspaper story of his death? If so where else can I look? And lastly, he may have married in the early 1860s in India, but we have not as yet been able to confirm this. Any ideas or help would be so very much appreciated Marina Canada