French

Information relating to French ancestry in India.

Principal locations

The major French possessions in India were:

• Pondicherry
• Chandernagar
• 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.¹

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 in the APAC at the British Library.

Some church records from French India have been microfilmed by the LDS and are available at LDS Family History Centres:

• 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.

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.

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.

Archives

ANOM, previously CAOM

This India List post says that the Pondicherry archives are in the "Centre des Archives d'Outre-Mer" (CAOM) in the city of Aix en Provence, France. The archive is now known as the Archives Nationales d'Outre-Mer (ANOM).

• Ulysse, ANOM's searchable database of images from the colonial period [in French].
• ANOM on ArchivesWiki. See the linked "Easy Archive Tip" document for details of visiting ANOM.
• ANOM Wikipedia

Miscellaneous information

This India list post advises that in French, if you see a surname with the word ‘dit’ after it such as ‘Smith dit Brown’ it means Smith known as Brown.

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).

References

1. A History of India (Volume Two) (1978) by Percival Spear p.68, p.77

External links

Wikipedia:

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

Other:

• "French Physicians in 17th Century Mughal India" [pdf file]

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