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[[Category:Research methods]]
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==Summary==
This page contains instructions on how to use the [[LDS]] (Mormon) records to resaerch family history in India. It is '''not''' an official page of the [[LDS]] church. To find your nearest LDS [[Family History Centres]] (FHC), look up your telephone directory under ''Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints''. Or ask a fellow genealogist - they'll know! To find your nearest FHC at the official [[LDS]] website go to [http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Library/FHC/frameset_fhc.asp FHC Locator].
The first British church in India was St Mary's in [[Fort St George]], [[Madras]], which was consecrated in 1680. Many other churches were established after that date and records exist for most of them from the time of their consecration. Every year on Lady Day (25th March), British churches were required to send copies of their ecclesiastical records to the capital city of each Presidency. The Presidencies then indexed the records and sent them to the India Office in London (now [[APAC]] at the [[British Library]]). The Mormons have microfilmed all the ecclesiastical records, including the indices, and made them available to Mormons and non-Mormons alike.
A large number of British Library India Office records are now available online on the LDS websiteFamilySearch as index records. Refer [[IGI]] for details. (In addition, these records are expected to become available online as images on the pay site FindMyPast in 2013.) However, it appears not all the British Library India Office records are listed on the LDS website. In particular, there appear to be no records shown for dates of birth within the last one hundred years from 2010, or marriages within the last seventy five years from 2010. (Records have not been updated since 2010). Currently there is no list of those India Office records which are included online on the LDS website. Accordingly you may wish to search the British Library India Office records. Note however the records sent to England declined in number from the early 1930s with minimal numbers sent to England in the 1940s.
==Index==
Don't forget the volume number - it is sometimes only written at the top of the page, so you may need to scroll up to see it.
If the volume number doesn't look like a simple number (e.g. it has a letter over a line over a number) then your ancestor's record is part of the Omissions and Corrections series. Go to the page on [[LDS Microfilms for Church Records outside of the usual Presidencies|Non Presidential Records ]] to learn what this is all about.
If you have already found a reference to a record in the British Library India Office records, or some FIBIS records eg some transcribed marriages, you do not need to look in the indexes as the information you already have as to year, volume and folio is the same as the information in the indexes.
==Conclusion==
I know that this sounds very complicated, but once you're familiar with the records you'll realise that it's fairly straightforward. Look up the Locality Guide and order a film, view the index, look up the Locality Guide and order a film again, then view the record.
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[[Category:Research methods]]
