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In 1930 The records are housed in the Anglican Church [[British Library]] in India separated from London. If you live outside London, the Church of England best way to access these records and became the autonomous Church of India, their indexes is to use [[BurmaLDS]] and (Mormon) microfilms, available in local LDS [[CeylonFamily History Centres|Family History Centre]], still within the Anglican Communions. '''The commerical website findmypast.co. From this time onwards the number of ecclesiastical uk are digitising these records sent to England was smaller than previously, and continued to decline over timethey will be online from early 2012 ([http://www.new.fibis.org/archives/194 more details]).
The records are housed In 1930 the Anglican Church in India separated from the Church of England and became the autonomous Church of India, [[British LibraryBurma]], London. If you live outside London, then the best way to have access to these records and their indexes is to use the [[LDSCeylon]] (Mormon) microfilms, which will be available in an LDS [[Family History Centres|Family History Centre]] near you. '''This [http://wwwstill within the Anglican Communion.new.fibis.org/archives/194 FIBIS Blog] indicates that the From this time onwards fewer ecclesiastical records are were sent to be digitised England, and should be available online from early 2012 through the commercial site findmypastnumber continued to decline over time.co[[Image:Marriage cert St Pauls Calcutta.uk'''jpg|thumb|300px|Certificate of an 1885 marriage]]
These ==Accuracy==The ecclesiatical records in the India Office collection are transcriptions of records registers from churches in India, and as sent to London for administrative purposes. As such, there is always the possibility of a are occasional transcription errorerrors. As an example, this India List [http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/INDIA/2011-02/1296753914 post] advises that the British Library IOR records show the surname as 'Hobeau', whereas the original hand written entry in the register at the church in Madras shows the name as 'Hobson'.
add pic and some tidying, minor updates
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There was some [[Birth and death registration|registration]] of Births and Deaths in [[British India]] , commencing in 1864 in Calcutta , but generally it was voluntary, and records which exist are difficult to access. The next best thing for a genealogist is to use '''Church Records'''. An estimated 8070% of all [[Birth, marriage and death records|baptism, marriage and burial records]] have survived todayin the [[India Office Records]], and the good news is that they are all indexed and available on microfilm. Records of baptisms, marriages and burials are available 1698-1968.
==Records at the British Library==
Microfilmed copies of all the records are available for public inspection and indexes are on the open shelves of the Asian & African Studies Reading Room, broken down by [[Presidency]], alphabetically and by year. Records are catalogued under the 'N' series (ie, the references for ecclesiastical records being with N), under the heading [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=059-iorn&cid=-1#-1 Ecclesiastical Returns]
====Online transcriptions====
Many of the indexes have been transcribed by FIBIS Volunteers and are available in the [http://www.search.fibis.org/frontis/bin/index.php FIBIS Search database] under the heading Ecclesiastical Records. Some records, a small proportion of the whole, have been transcribed and are searchable on the British Library's [http://indiafamily.bl.uk/UI/ India Office Family History Search].
The [[British Library]] article contains visiting tips and information.
Many of the names from the records at the British Library were added in April 2010 to the LDS website. Refer [[IGI|Family Search website]] for further details.
=== Anglican Records ===
|'''Bombay''' ||N/3 || 1709
|}
=== Roman Catholic Records ===
It may be noted that a number of independent [[missionary]] and non-conformist churches were requested to return their BMD records to the presidency authorities. The latter considered it necessary to record proof of relationships of its employees for official purposes such as rights to pension, etc. A number of priests refused to do this, largely on the grounds of time taken and of cost. Accordingly, many of their vital events are not recorded in the APAC today. Foremost among these are the records of the large numbers of Catholic soldiers who used the missionary churches during the thirty years or so before emancipation. To obtain details from these ‘missing’ records, it is necessary to visit the church where the ceremony was performed and to apply to see the original register.
With the passage of time, the BMD returns became increasingly included and therefore more likely to feature in the ‘N’ series of returns at the BL. Note, however, a number of marriages performed in the Church of Scotland feature in the [[Registrar marriages]], as explained in the link.
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. Contact the Church of North India, refer [[Calcutta#Churches and missions|Calcutta-Churches and missions]].
