French

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Information relating to French ancestry in India, and also to the British in France.

Principal locations

The major French possessions in India were:

• Pondicherry (Pondichéry)
• Chandernagar (Chandernagor)
• Karikal
• Mahé
• Yanaon

Brief history of the French in India

The French East India Company was formed in 1664, but it was so closely tied with the state that its fortunes rose and fell with the careers of ministers and turns of politics. It was not until after 1720 that its fortunes revived rapidly. Until this time, the the French stake in India was not great enough to warrant the English fighting over it, so the two companies declared neutrality. However, between 1720 and 1740, the French Company's trade increased to ten times its value until it was nearly half the size of the English Company. The French Company now presented an economic threat to the English Company.

This threat was exacerbated by two wholly European wars : the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748) and the Seven Years War (1756-1763), in which England and France were on opposite sides. The two Companies, backed by their respective states, went to war in India. The ensuing conflicts were known as the Carnatic Wars. In 1746 the French captured Madras but the British exchanged this for Cape Breton Island in North America in 1748. The French and English then fought over Indian territory, aiding rival princes and governors, until the French were soundly defeated in 1760. Pondicherry fell and the power of the French in India was effectively ended, although a brief resurgence occurred in 1782 under Admiral de Suffren. The French colonies in India remained separate from British India until Independence came in 1947 and the French voluntarily ceded its former colonies to the new Indian state.

Some Frenchmen served in the Armies of the rulers of the Princely States. For example, M. Maistre De la Tour, was the French commandant of Hyder Ali’s artillery which had "un Corps de Troupes Européennes". Refer Historical books online below.

Other examples of a French background in India are a French Huguenot who worked for the King of Oudh and a family of plantation owners in South India whose ancestor was born early 1700s in France, and then emigrated to Isle de Bourbon (now Reunion Island) , (still an overseas department of France), around 1750.

FIBIS resources

Some indexes to Chandernagore Civil Births, Marriages and Deaths have been transcribed and are available to search. For further information see Chandernagore.

Records

General articles:

• Birth, marriage and death records
• Non-British Ancestors

Church records

If your ancestors were baptised, married or buried in a European church in British India, then the church records should have been transcribed and sent to the capital of the Presidency, where they would later have been forwarded on to London. See Birth, marriage and death records for further information. However, your French ancestors may not have lived in British India. In this case, the church records will not be kept at the British Library.

Births, marriages and deaths in Pondichéry from 1676 to 1784. Résumé des Actes de l'État Civil de Pondichéry. Published by the Société de l'Histoire de l'Inde Française (Pondichéry) 1917-1937

Tome I, De 1676 à 1735, Tome II, De 1736 à 1760, Tome III, De 1761 à 1784 Gallicia, Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Volume III contains an alphabetical index at the end, following page 408, which appears to be in respect of the third volume only. This displays in the “Table of Contents” box

Some church records from French India have been microfilmed by the LDS and are available at LDS Family History Centres. More details are available in the LDS Library catalogue:

• Parish records, 1676-1777 Catholic Church. Carnatic Mission, Pondicherry - microfilm no. 1609811
• Parish records, 1709-1990 Catholic Church. Immaculate Conception Cathedral, Pondicherry - microfilm no. 1609796, 1609809-1609812
• Parish records, 1815-1990 Catholic Church. Notre Dame des Anges, Pondicherry - microfilm no. 1609813-1609814
• Parish records, 1903-1950 Catholic Church. Saint Francis of Assisi, Pondicherry - microfilm no. 1609747
• Parish records, 1908-1990 Catholic Church. Sacred Heart, Pondicherry - microfilm no. 1609747
• Parish records, 1587-1830 Catholic Church. Notre-Dame-des-Anges, Pondicherry - microfilm nos. 1083618-1083619, 1083790-1083792, 1083779
• Parish records, 1731-1830 Catholic Church Notre-Dame, Karikal - microfilm no. 1083797
• Parish records, 1723-1825 Catholic Church Ste-Thérèse Mahé - microfilm no. 1083799
• Parish records, 1690-1830 Catholic Church St-Louis Chandernagor - microfilm no. 1764204

Civil registration

The LDS have microfilmed records of civil registration of births, marriages, deaths for French India. French Civil Registration records contain a great deal of information. The film details are:

• Karikal 1731-1854 Chandernagor 1817-1854 Pondicherry 1817-1834, 1844-1854 Mahé 1815-1854 Yanaon 1817-1854 ten-year indexes - microfilm no. 1764204
• Pondicherry 1791-1867 - microfilm nos. 1083780-1083784 and 1083793-1083795
• Karikal 1792-1864 - microfilm nos. 1083797-1083798
• Mahé 1826-1864 - microfilm no. 1083799

Cemeteries

The LDS have microfilmed the book List of inscriptions on tombs or monuments in Madras possessing historical or archaeological interest by Julian James Cotton, which includes cemeteries in Pondicherry. The microfilm no. is 795967. This book is also available to read online, refer Cemeteries-Inscriptions in online books

Jean-Claude Féray has transcribed Surnames in the European Cemetery in Pondicherry. They are in the French language, but non-French speakers should be able to work out the lists. This site is now archived.

BACSA has published many transcriptions of monumental inscriptions from headstones throughout South Asia. These include the French Cemetery at Calcutta.

Military records

The LDS have 51 microfiche of the French Government's "Alphabetical list of military and civilian officers serving in the French colonies, (abt. 1659-1873)." They are microfiche no. 6002212.

Other

See Biographical Records (IOR O series) for records which include some men born in France, mainly indigo planters

Archives

ANOM, previously CAOM

The Pondicherry archives are in the "Archives Nationales d'Outre-Mer (ANOM)" previously known as the "Centre des Archives d'Outre-Mer" (CAOM), in the city of Aix en Provence, France. The archive website Archives nationales d'outre-mer includes the page Établissements Français de L'Inde (This link is reached through IREL; Etat general des fonds; Fonds territoriaux) (in French)

This page État-civil:Inde française indicates the locations for which "État-civil" (civil registration) records are held. It is understood that these civil registration records for India will be available online in the future, in a similar way to those for some other countries which are currently available. Records for Île Bourbon (Réunion) and Île de France (Île Maurice), islands which have links with India, are included in those available at ANOM. Records for Réunion at ANOM are available online. Refer link in References below.

The English website does not appear to have all the information contained on the French language website but includes

• French India and the French East India Company
  • In addition to the five Districts, mentioned above, it is advised there were eight subsidiary trading stations (factories): Balassore, Kassimbazar, Yougdia, or Jougdia now on the seabed near Sandwip, Dacca, Patna, Masulipatnam, Calicut, Iskitipitch and Surate.

• Ulysse, ANOM's searchable database of images from the colonial period (in French).
• ANOM on ArchivesWiki.
• ANOM Wikipedia
• Easy Archive Tip on the CAOM written by Stephanie Hare in 2005.This is a Word document to download, from the France page of LSE’s now archived Archives Made Easy.

Tracing the British in France

Records of Departments in France

Many British people with Indian connections lived in Boulogne-sur–Mer which had a large foreign population with schools, boarding houses etc catering for these residents. The online archives for Boulogne-sur-Mer are available as part of The Archives of Pas-de-Calais

Avranches in Lower Normandy was also very popular with retirees from British India.

There were three very large enclaves for British ex-pats in France: Pas de Calais, Paris and the Mediterranean coast of France and also a very large group living in Biarritz (where there was a very popular spa and casino).

Searching for French Family History Records Family Search Blog

Miscellaneous information

• In French, if you see a surname with the word ‘dit’ after it such as ‘Smith dit Brown’ it means Smith known as Brown.
• A number of the marriages at the end of the 17th century and in the 18th century in French Indian territories were between Frenchmen and women of mixed Indian-Portuguese blood.

Further reading

This book list was provided by Cathy Day from her former Family History in India website. New recommendations should be added to the recommended reading pages.

• Dictionnaire généalogique et armorial de l'Inde française, 1560-1962 by Place, Agnès de. Published in 1997 in Versailles. The available at the LDS Family History Centre in Salt Lake City. If you know where other copies are available, please update this page.
• Dictionnaire généalogique des familles de l'Inde-française by Lucien­Jean Bord and Michel Gaudart de Soulages. Paperback edition (1984).
• The French in India : From Diamond Traders to Sanskrit Scholars by Rose Vincent (Editor). Hardcover edition (1990).
• Fortunes a Faire : The French in Asian Trade,1719-48 by Catherine Manning (Editor). Hardcover edition (1996).
• Indika Essays in Indo-French Relations : Essays in Indo-French Relations, 1630-1976 by Jean Marie Lafont. Hardcover edition (2000).
• French in India and Indian Nationalism by K.S. Mathew (1999).

External links

Wikipedia:

• French India
• French East India Company
• Causes for Liberation of French colonies in India

Other:

• The French Genealogy Blog (in English) which contains links to some of the online Departmental Archives
• An Ancestor From Pondichéry? The French Genealogy Blog (in English)
  • Gives links for online listings of all of the births, marriages and deaths in Pondichéry from 1676 through 1784. (see above)
  • Recherche - Rôles d´équipages et passagers, Compagnie des Indes SGA - Mémoire des hommes (in French)
• Prof. Frances Pritchett's The French
• French www.banglapedia.org
• Medicographia, Volume 31, No. 1, 2009, issue no. 98, (pdf) includes
  • "Spices, diamonds, and Ayurvedic medicine: French physicians in 17th Century Mughal India" by Christian Régnier pages 92-99 (page 93 of the pdf) and
  • "West Meets East: Pondicherry and the French East India Company" by Dominique Camus, pages 100-110 (page 101 of the pdf), both articles with coloured illustrations.

The first article is available in a html version with no illustrations.

• "Colour of Fraternity: Citizenship, Race and Domicile in French India" by Adrian Carton 2004, html version , original pdf
• Theses from the Department of History, University of Pondicherry from Indian ETD Repository @ INFLIBNET including
  • Trade and commerce in Pondicherry ( A. D. 1701 -1793 ) by M Manickam February 1995
  • Society and economy of the French colonies with special reference to Pondicherry in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (A.D. 1674 - 1754) by Mary. A. Sr Georgia May 1996
• AMA : Association Maurice Archives Genealogy of Mauritius. French language website. Mauritius was a French colony from 1710-1810, then known as Isle de France, or Île de France. Includes a link to

CGB : Cercle Généalogique de Bourbon. Île de la Réunion, or Reunion Island. It was previously known as Île Bourbon. It is located about 200 kilometres (120 mi) southwest of Mauritius, the nearest island.

• French and Latin language aids
  • France includes France Language and Languages which includes a Word List. Family Search (LDS) Wiki. Reading French Handwritten Records from FamilySearch Learning Center
  • Rudy Schmidt’s French Glossary of Causes of Death and other Archaic Medical Terms
  • Latin Genealogical Word List. Some Roman Catholic records may be in Latin. Family Search (LDS) Wiki.
  • Rudy Schmidt’s Latin/English Glossary of Causes of Death and other Archaic Medical Terms

Historical books online

• An account of the war in India, between the English and French, on the coast of Coromandel, from 1750 to the year 1760 by Richard Owen Cambridge (1761) Google Books
• Notes on Pondicherry: or, The French in India. To which is added A sketch of the Moguls. etc by an Officer of the Madras Artillery (1845) Google Books
• History of the French in India: From the Founding of Pondichery in 1674 to the Capture of that Place in 1761 by George Bruce Malleson (1868) Google Books
• Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas by George Bruce Malleson (1878) Archive.org
• A Particular Account of the European Adventurers of Hindustan 1784 to 1803 by Herbert Compton (1893) ( Benoit De Boigne (French), George Thomas, General Perron (French)) Archive.org
• Hindustan Under Free Lances, 1770-1820: Sketches of Military Adventure in Hindustan by Henry George Keene 1907 Archive.org. This book is about European adventurers, many of them French.
• Three Frenchmen in Bengal; or, The commercial ruin of the French settlements in 1757 by Samuel Charles Hill 1903 Archive.org
• "Echoes from Old Chandernagore" Bengal Past and Present, Volume 2 1908, page 343. This volume is available to read online on the Digital Library of India website, as Volume 2, no.3 (1908), computer page 96. Contains some cemetery records, and a few marriage and baptism details.
• Private diary of Ananda Ranga Pillai, dubash to Joseph François Dupleix, a record of matters political, historical, social, and personal, from 1736 to 1761 published 1904 Volume 1, Volume 2 Archive.org
• Transactions in India, from the commencement of the French War in seventeen hundred and fifty-six, to the conclusion of the late peace, in seventeen hundred and eighty-three: Containing a history of the British interests in Indostan, during a period of near thirty years; distinguished by two wars with France, several revolutions and treaties of alliance, the acquisition of an extensive territory, and the administration of Governor Hastings by John Moir 1786 Google Books
• The History of Ayder Ali Khan, Nabob-Bahader: or, New Memoirs Concerning the East Indies by M. M. D. L. T. [M. Maistre De la Tour, the French commandant of Hyder Ali’s artillery] 1784 Volume 1, Volume 2. Original Edition in French Volume 1, Volume 2 1783 Google Books
• Dupleix et la défense de Pondichéry (1748) d'après les documents inédits et les archives de la famille de Dupleix by Marquis de Nazelle 1908 Archive.org Written in French.
• Correspondance du Conseil superieur de Pondichéry et de la Compagnie [des Indes]:Volume 2 1736-1738, Volume 5 1755-1759 Google Books. Written in French
• Correspondance du Conseil supérieur de Pondichéry avec le Conseil de Chandernagor Volume 2 1738-1747 1916 Archive.org. Written in French
• Hygiène des blancs, des mixtes, et des Indiens à Pondichéry by Docteur Huillet 1867 Google Books. Written in French
• "The French In India" by 'Cato' page 507 The United Service Magazine Volume 8 New Series October 1893 to April 1894 Archive.org
• French Possessions in India Handbook prepared under the direction of the Historical Section of the Foreign Office-No 77. Reprint edition. Originally published 1920 London: H.M. Stationery Office. Hathi Trust Digital Library