Tracing Your British Indian Ancestors

A Guide for Family Historians

Emma Jolly

• Publisher: Pen & Sword
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN:
  9781781597552
• Print ISBN:
  9781848845732
• Subtopic: British History

Tracing Your British Indian Ancestors gives a fascinating insight into the history of the subcontinent under British rule and into the lives the British led there. It also introduces the reader to the range of historical records that can be consulted in order to throw light on the experience of individuals who were connected to India over the centuries of British involvement in the country.Emma Jolly looks at every aspect of British Indian history and at all the relevant resources. She explains the information held in the British Library India Office Records and The National Archives. She also covers the records of the armed forces, the civil service and the railways, as well as religious and probate records, and other sources available for researchers. At the same time, she provides a concise and vivid social history of the British in India: from the early days of the East India Company, through the Mutiny and the imposition of direct British rule in the mid-nineteenth century, to the independence movement and the last days of the Raj. Her book will help family historians put their research into an historical perspective, giving them a better understanding of the part their ancestors played in India in the past.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Family History
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Glossary
• Chronology of the British in India
• Chapter 1: Getting Started
• Chapter 2: History of the British in India: the East India Company (EIC)
• Chapter 3: Company Rule in India
• Chapter 4: The India Office and the Raj
• Chapter 5: The East India Company’s Armies, the Indian Army, the British Army in India and the Royal Indian Air Force
• Chapter 6: Merchants and Ships
• Chapter 7: Religion, Cemeteries and Schools
• Chapter 8: Railways
• Chapter 9: Probate Records
• Chapter 10: Indian Independence and Life after 1947
• Governors & Viceroys of India
• Bibliography
• Index