German

Non-British Ancestors:
Armenian
Danish
Dutch
French
German
Greek
Indian
Jewish
Portuguese

Article "German Voices from India : Officers of the Hanoverian Regiments in East India Company Service" by Chen Tzoref-Ashkenazi, in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Volume 32, Issue 2 August 2009 , pages 189 - 211.Details. Available at the British Library

German soldiers from Dutch East India Company Regiments were recruited into the 1st Madras (European) Fusiliers

Records

Some Catalogue entries for the India Office Records at the British Library are:

• Deputation of Lieutenant John Owen to the Cape of Good Hope to enlist German, Austrian and Polish recruits for the Company's European Regiments IOR/F/4/3/634 Nov 1787-Sep 1796
• Additional allowance granted to Lieutenant John Owen for enlisting German, Austrian and Polish recruits at the Cape of Good Hope in 1796-97. IOR/F/4/74/1609 Aug 1795-Aug 1799
• Complaint of Baron de Reiger alleging ill-treatment of the prisoners of war of the Wurttemberg Regiment at Madras not upheld by the Court of Directors. IOR/F/4/53/1182 Oct 1793-Feb 1798
• Papers regarding the disbandment of the Wurttemberg Company, (includes a Muster Roll of the Company). Memorial of Lieutenant Paul Kellner requesting permission to transfer to the Madras Army. IOR/F/4/183/3685 Jul 1804-Mar 1805
• Question of the pensions and allowances to be granted to the officers of the Swiss Regiment De Meuron (includes lists of officers of the regiment and a copy of the Capitulation of 25 September 1798) IOR/F/4/78/1728 Sep 1798-Apr 1800
• Six months' advance of pay is made to Captain N.J. De Bergeon and Captain Francois Louis Lenn, two officers of the Regiment De Meuron who remained behind in India when the regiment left for Europe. IOR/F/4/234/5396 Jul-Oct 1806
• British Army in India: Nominal and Casualty Rolls of Jager Corps Volunteers IOR/L/MIL/15/31-36 1860-1866

Also see External Links, below

External Links

• This India List post advises that a Prussian ancestor arrived in India in 1784 to join the Austrian East India Company at Bankipur, up-river from Calcutta. The Austrian EIC went bankrupt by 1789.
• This India List thread advises that there were lots of German Regiments in India especially during the 18th Century and until about 1820, including captured Wurttenburgers from the Dutch service who were brought in from South Africa to fight for the EIC. Many references in the India Office records are listed, including the raising of Swiss and Hanoverian Regiments. This India List thread is on similar matters.
• This India List thread mentions the Hanoverian Regiments and this post mentions Swiss regiments
• Hanoverians are mentioned in this link (Archives.org) in 1783.
• This India List thread mentions the Swiss mercenary regiment of De Meuron largely manned by Germans, who were working for the Dutch but who switched sides when the British took over the Cape of Good Hope in 1795
• The Wurttemberg Regiment’s German name was the Württembergisches Kapregiment or Cape Regiment Kapregiment Wikipedia written in German and associated Wikimedia.This Rootsweb List post says: Wuerttemberg Kapregiment (the regiment of the Cape of Good Hope) from 1786 to 1808. Duke Carl Eugen of Wuerttemberg formed a regiment of soldiers and sold it to the Dutch to fight as their mercenaries at the Cape. Of the 3,200 men only about 100 men returned home!. This Wikipedia map showing where the Regiment was based, includes Madras.
• In 1860 the 3rd Bombay (European) Regiment, later the 109th Regiment of Foot in India was joined by over 500 men of the Jaeger Corps who had volunteered from the Cape Colony (part of South Africa under British Occupation until 1910) for service in India on the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny. The Jager (Jaeger) Corps had its origin in the German Legion sent to the Crimea, which was then resettled in South Africa, although some of the men were not German. For more details, see Jager Corps
• This India list thread is about Germans in Dutch East India Company regiments in India or the East Indies and advises they were often taken over by the EIC
• The following reference to Germans in the Dutch East Indies is quoted in Janssen’s Indisch Repertorium: Die Deutschen in Niederländisch Indien, door Mr. P.C. Bloys van Treslong Prins, Vortrag gehalten in der Ortsgruppe Batavia am 30. Sept. 1935, Tokyo/Leipzig 1937 (Mitteilungen der deutschen Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens, Band XXIX, Teil D).

• This India List post advises that an ancestor came from East Prussia, now Lithuania . Many Germans were Lutherans who did not use the Episcopalian Churches and records were found in Presbyterian registers. Refer Missionary and Non-Conformist Church records. Some Church of Scotland Bombay church records and records for St Andrew's Church of Scotland, Madras may be found in LDS Microfilms of Church registers in India, but it seems the records for St Andrew's Church of Scotland in Calcutta have not been filmed and are only obtainable from the church, refer Calcutta-Churches and missions. St Andrew's Calcutta also holds baptism and marriage registers from Church of Scotland churches in cantonments throughtout India, Burma, Ceylon and some Gulf stations.
• This India List post suggests Lutheran missions as a source of German names. Refer Missionary-Other External Links
• A review of the book The Lion’s Firanghis: Europeans at the Court of Lahore by Bobby Singh Bansal 2010 "By the 1830s a multifarious array of French, Prussian, Spanish, Dutch and Italian officers had descended on the Anglo-Punjab frontier, hoping to enlist in the services of the opportunistic Maharajah…" Available through Amazon.co.uk from the FIBIS Shop
• British Library Blog Untold Lives:Missionaries and madams 31 October 2011 and 'Unfortunate' women 7 November 2011. Repatriation of Germans and Austrians during World War 1
• The Swiss in India (German/French language) Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz
• India Includes "German Missions in India" mainly in German language but includes extracts from the book German Missions In British India Nationalism: Case And Crisis In Missions by Paul Von Tucher 1980 concerning internment of German missionaries during World War 2 at Premnagar near Dehra Dun, Purandhar, about 40kms south-east of Poona and Satara.gaebler.info.
• German language aids
  • Germany includes German Language and Languages which in turn includes German Word List and Germany Handwriting Guide Family Search (LDS) Wiki
  • Rudy Schmidt’s German Glossary of Causes of Death and other Archaic Medical Terms
  • German-English Illness Translations Odessa Digital Library