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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 website. Refer [[IGI]] for details. However, it appears not all the British Library India Office records are listed on the LDS website in which case you may wish to search the British Library India Office records.
==Index==
The first step is to determine which Presidency your ancestor lived in, as each one is indexed separately. If you have no idea, then start with [[Bengal]], which was the largest Presidency. If that doesn't work out, try [[Bombay]] and finally, [[Madras]]. If you have a location name and are a member of the INDIA-L Mailing List then you could ask its helpful members for advice on which Presidency to search, or try the Locations section of the FIBIS website.
You will be presented with a very long list of microfilms. The first section is the index for that Presidency, followed by a list of microfilms of the actual church records. In the index, go to the type of record you require (BAPTISM, MARRIAGE or BURIAL). Select the period in which you are interested. Each index covers around a ten-year period, although many of the early ones cover considerably longer periods. When you find the time period (e.g., 1860-1870) write down the microfilm number that appears opposite it (e.g., 480960).
Alternatively, you can look up the microfilm number on this website, [[LDS Microfilms for Bengal Presidency Church Records]], [[LDS Microfilms for Bombay Presidency Church Records]] or [[LDS Microfilms for Madras Presidency Church Records]]. You will still need to go to one fo the [[Family History Centres]] to order the microfilm of the actual index, however, apart from [[Family History Centres|Australia and New Zealand]], (and perhaps other countries) where the films must be ordered on line.
Now go to the friendly FHC librarian and tell them that you wish to order that microfilm. You will be charged a small fee (in the vicinity of $6 Australian) to cover postage. In a couple of weeks (approximately!) your microfilm will arrive and the FHC will notify you. Make a booking to view the microfilm at the FHC and start looking for your ancestors!
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.
If you have found an [[IGI]] a LDS website reference which includes a film number, if you have ready access to the indexes, it will save you time to look up the folio (page) number in the index. However it is generally not worth while specifically ordering the index film. You should be able to find the relevant entry on the records film as the IGI entry LDS website will probably give you the date and location .Generally in each yearly volume of records there are four quarterly returns and the locations are listed alphabetically.
==The Church Record==
