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 Registration

This British Library link Ecclesiastical Records mentions Birth Registration in the context of those records. It says “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.

However the following India List post indicates that some records of European Births may be obtained from the Birth Registers held by Indian authorities, namely the local municipality. The post says ‘I was born in the Govt. Hospital in Ootacamund, and all I have as evidence is a birth register. No Birth certificate was issued, because they did not have such things. (Basically, this is a form that is filled out and copied from their register.) From what I understand, this is the norm and you would probably have to investigate the local government office of BMD's to get a copy’. This India List post indicates that the local municipality is the responsible body.

It appears that Birth Registration has existed since the mid 19th century in some areas, but it is unknown to what extent records are available in India.

Also refer Researchers and Document Services in India and the UK

See also

• Cemeteries