Birth, marriage and death records

These ‘Vital Records’ include not only Births, Marriages and Deaths but more particularly in India, Baptisms/Christenings, Marriages and Burials. There was no general registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths (BMDs) in British India, but see below.

There are a number of sources for locating birth, marriage or death information. This article provides an overview of these. See the links to the main article for each source for more in depth information.

Ecclesiastical records (‘N’ Series in the India Office Records)

Main article: Church records

The East India Company established and paid for Anglican dioceses and parishes in all areas as they came under its control. Each parish priest was required to establish registers in which to record BMDs. In addition, he had to send duplicates to the presidency ecclesiastical authorities. The latter have been collated and sent to London and are now in the care of the India Office Records at the British Library in their Asia, Pacific & Africa Collections Reading Room (APAC).

Microfilmed copies of all the records are available for public inspection and indexes are available on the open shelves of the APAC, broken down by Presidency, alphabetically and by year.

The N series contains Anglican and some Catholic and Non-Conformist records.

Registrar Marriages

Main article: Registrar marriages

Marriages conducted by the Registrar, which commenced in 1852, are included in the India Office ‘N’ series (N/11). A complete transcription of the indexes to these records is included in the FIBIS Search section of this website.

Unfortunately, the LDS have not filmed these records so they may only be viewed at the British Library.

Records on the LDS Family Seach website

Main article: IGI

The LDS maintained International Genealogical Index is a huge database of genealogical information. The IGI contains several hundred thousand birth and marriage entries for the British India period, data input from the ecclesiastical record microfilms. Those from the ecclesiastical records provide reference numbers so that the microfilms may be viewed at LDS Family History Centres.

‘Domestic Occurrences’ in registers, almanacs and newspapers

Main article: Domestic Occurrences

'Domestic Occurrences' was a section found in many periodical publications detailing birth, marriage and death announcements. It is easy to search these records in the digitized versions of journals and directories that are available online. FIBIS has a wealth of transcribed resources.

Records at The National Archives

Main article: General Register Office

The National Archives hold some records that may be useful in tracing a BMD outside of the United Kingdom. For more help see TNA’s brief guide "Looking for records of a birth, marriage or death of a British national at sea or abroad" or the books Tracing Your Ancestors in The National Archives by Amanda Bevan (7th edn, National Archives Kew, 2006), including chapter 8, "Births, marriages and deaths of Britons overseas or in the armed services" and The British Overseas, A Guide to Records of Their Births, Baptisms, Marriages, Deaths and Burials Available in the United Kingdom by Geoffrey Yeo (London, 3rd edition 1995). Both are available at the British Library.

BMDs at sea

Main article: Births, marriages and deaths at sea

British Army

British Army Ecclesiastical returns and Chaplains Returns detail sources other than the N series for India BMDs pertaining to British Army soldiers and their families.

Birth and Death Registration

Some registration of births occured, particularly during the twentieth century, although there is evidence of earlier practice. These records do not frequently appear in the India Office Records. As the the British Library's page on Ecclesiastical Records explains, “registration of births was not compulsory and very few are entered in the records. Registrations do not generally appear until the 1920s. Entries show date and place of birth, child's name, parents' names and their nationality and religion, father's occupation, date of registration.” An example of European children entered in the Birth Register, appearing in the Ecclesiastical Records at the British Library, is given in this India List post.

Based on her own experience, Sylvia Murphy advised: "Within the general set of copies of presidency ecclesiastical records, is also to be found evidence that some British Subjects actually registered their children’s births. These are identified by the use of forms headed 'Office of the Marriage Registrar, Calcutta' (for example), and although a baptism date is given, there is no Church name included to show where the child may have been baptised. It may be the case that such entries reflect births and baptisms of children whose parents belonged to a non-conformist denomination which did not make its own returns to the India Office. Other indications of Birth Registration occur in the 1940s and after independence. Lists of names and dates of birth of infants registered are to be found at least in the N/3 (Bombay) ecclesiastical returns for this period, but no detailed copies of actual registration information are available. Presumably these have been retained in the office(s) of the Registrar(s) in India".

Historical background
The history of civil registration in India dates back to the middle of the nineteenth century. It started with the registration of deaths with a view to introducing sanitary reforms for control of pestilence and disease and not so much for studying population trends.

Thacker's 1865 Bengal Directory, on page 147, states "Registration of Births and Deaths under Section 94 of Act VI of 1864...Registration of Births and Deaths took effect from 1st April 1864." Calcutta was divided into 6 districts. Read the full transcript of page 147.

“Registration was first introduced into Calcutta in 1864, and neglect was rendered penal. Birth registration is now fairly correct and the mortuary returns received from each police inspector of the twenty one sections into which the city is divided are checked by other returns from the sextons of the cemeteries and the clerks of the burning ghauts...In the Madras Presidency the registration of births commenced in 1870..The mortuary registration was commenced in 1866... In the Bombay Presidency the registration of deaths was commenced in 1865. Birth registration has only just been commenced [c 1872]..”

The Central Province of Berar introduced a system of birth registration in 1866. Punjab and United Provinces followed a little later. In 1873, the Bengal Births and Deaths Registration Act was passed and was later adopted by the neighbouring states of Bihar and Orissa. It was, however, only in 1886 that a Central Act- the Births Deaths and Marriages Registration Act- was placed on the Statute Book to provide for voluntary registration throughout British India. This Act was not to affect any law on the subject already in force or which might be passed subsequently for any particular local area and therefore had only limited force. Advantage was taken of the Act by the foreigners, particularly Europeans and British residing in the country. A few states like Madras and Bengal had their own specific Act (Madras registration of Births and Deaths Act 1899 and Bengal Births and Deaths Registration Act 1873) which had been adopted by a few other states.

In 1930, in the whole of India, Bengal was the only province in which registration was compulsory both in rural and urban areas. In Madras, registration was compulsory in all municipal towns and was later extended to all villages towns and was later extended to all villages with a population of 2000 and more. In Bihar and Orissa, registration was compulsory only in some municipalities whereas in Punjab and the Central Provinces, it was compulsory in all municipal towns. In Bombay it was compulsory in nearly all municipalities while in Assam it covered all municipal towns, small towns, tea gardens and a few towns of hill districts.

Generally, the officials of the revenue, police or health departments were also made responsible for registration. In municipal towns and cities the municipal authority was responsible for registration of vital events and this function was usually a part of the duties of the health department. Health officials like sanitary inspector, vaccinator and health assistant were made responsible for this work.

The hospitals were required to report to the local Registrar in respect of events occurring therein.

This India List post indicates that some records of European births may be obtained from the Birth Registers held by Indian authorities. This post indicates that the local municipality is the body responsible for such registers of births and deaths. This India British Raj List post also indicates the local municipality issues copies from the Birth Registers.

Births and deaths of British subjects were registered with the British Residents of various Native or Princely States in India. These records form the N/5 series of the Ecclesiastical Records. For details, refer Princely States - British Library N/5 records.

If you are able to provide more information on how widespread birth registration was, and to what extent records are available in India, please update this article.

See also

• Divorce
• Cemeteries