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Read the article '''The [[British Library]]''' before you visitarticle contains visiting tips and information.
link, rem APAC refs, some editing
There was some [[Birth and death registration|registration ]] of Births and Deaths in [[British India ]] commencing in 1864 in Calcutta but generally it was voluntary, and records which exist are difficult to access. The next best thing for a genealogist is to use '''Church Records'''. An estimated 80% of all [[Birth, marriage and death records|baptism, marriage and burial records]] have survived today, and the good news is that they are all indexed and available on microfilm. Records of baptisms, marriages and burials are available 1698-1968.
In 1930 the Anglican Church in India separated from the Church of England and became the autonomous Church of India, [[Burma]] and [[Ceylon]], still within the Anglican Communion. From this time onwards the number of ecclesiastical records sent to England was smaller than previously, and continued to decline over time.
The records are housed in the [[APAC]] reading room in the [[British Library]], London. If you live outside London, then the best way to have access to these records and their indexes is to use the [[LDS]] (Mormon) microfilms, which will be available in an LDS [[Family History Centres|Family History Centre]] near you.
==Records at the British Library==
Microfilmed copies of all the records are available for public inspection and indexes are on the open shelves of the APACAsian & African Studies Reading Room, broken down by [[Presidency]], alphabetically and by year. Records are catalogued under the 'N' series (ie, the references for ecclesiastical records being with N), under the heading [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=059-iorn&cid=-1#-1 Ecclesiastical Returns]
Many of the indexes have been transcribed by FIBIS Volunteers and are available in the [http://www.search.fibis.org/frontis/bin/index.php FIBIS Searchdatabase] section of this web site under the heading Ecclesiastical Records. Some records, a small proportion of the whole, have been transcribed and are searchable on the British Library site 's [http://indiafamily.bl.uk/UI/ India Office Family History Search].
=== Anglican Records ===
Since the [[East India Company]] only officially accepted employees of Protestant faith, all early Ecclesiastical Records in the APAC are Anglican. The [[India Office]] categorization of these records and their earliest dates are:
{|-
It may be noted that a number of independent [[missionary]] and non-conformist churches were requested to return their BMD records to the presidency authorities. The latter considered it necessary to record proof of relationships of its employees for official purposes such as rights to pension, etc. A number of priests refused to do this, largely on the grounds of time taken and of cost. Accordingly, many of their vital events are not recorded in the APAC today. Foremost among these are the records of the large numbers of Catholic soldiers who used the missionary churches during the thirty years or so before emancipation. To obtain details from these ‘missing’ records, it is necessary to visit the church where the ceremony was performed and to apply to see the original register.
With the passage of time, the BMD returns became increasingly included and therefore more likely to feature in the ‘N’ series of returns at the APACBL. Note, however, that for some reason, a number of marriages performed in the Church of Scotland feature in the [[Registrar marriages]].
== Regional breakdown of ecclesiastical records ==
