British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia
The British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia (or BACSA) was established in 1976 to care for, and to record, European cemeteries wherever the East India Company operated. It has published an extensive series of books, including transcriptions of gravestones throughout India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and surrounding areas, as well as more general information on the British presence in this region.
BACSA are in the process of putting the indexes to its cemetery books online and these indexes are free to browse. If an indexed name is of interest then application can be made to BACSA for details of the relevant burial inscription - charges apply for this service. Many of the burials indicated in the search facility do not appear in the N Series of burials held in the British Library and this is , therefore, an invaluable supplementary resource to those records. Amongst those indexes already available are Meerut Cantonment, Agra , Vizagapatam and the Kacheri cemetery of Kanpur. Names on India related Monumental Inscriptions known to BACSA have also been included in the search facility - many of these being UK inscriptions.. See BACSA Search for more information.
In addition to their published material, the archive containing all of BACSA's transcripts is deposited in the private papers collection (shelf mark Mss Eur F370) at the British Library, where it may be consulted by readers. Files kept on cemeteries often consist of a report on the current state of the cemetery but some also include directions, descriptions, burial records, inscriptions or photographs. The catalogue of the archive folders is available at Cemetery Files and Registers (bacsa.org.uk) The archive includes some card indexes/papers prepared by Lt Col H K Percy Smith (1897-1975) who also prepared the Percy Smith card index collection at the Society of Genealogists. To browse the British Library catalogue contents for Mss Eur F370, which for some entries appears to have more detail than the BACSA site, click here which brings you to a timeout screen. Then click on "Welcome Screen", then on "Private papers",then enter F370 as the "Number", click on "Submit search", then "View Contents List"
See also
- Cemeteries and monumental inscriptions reading list for a list of BACSA publications.
- Cemeteries for more information about cemeteries generally.