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India Office Family History Search

15 Nov By Leave a Comment

The British Library’s India Office Family History Search is a must for genealogists. The India Office Records is a collection of several archives: East India Company (1600-1858), Board of Control (1784-1858), India Office (1858-1947) and the Burma Office (1937-1948). It covered a vital part of the British Empire from 1600-1947 in what is today India, Pakistan, Burma and Bangladesh. Other areas connected to British India, such as Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East and parts of Africa are also represented. In total representation is over 300 collections and over 3000 smaller deposits of Private Papers relating to British India.

British Subjects Documented in the Records

Within these collections is a wealth of genealogical information concerning the European and Eurasian population of British India. Biographical information can be found for officials and non-official residents. Since the East India Company and India Office had staff also based in Great Britain, these records also document them. Employees included civil servants, military, mariners, medical, chaplains, railway workers and law officers. Non-officials included merchants, planters, free mariners and missionaries.

Types of Records in the India Office Database

The “India Office Family History Search” is free of charge. It includes 300,000 births, baptisms, marriages, deaths, burials and biographical notes taken from a variety of sources. The database has scores of Irish born officials and non-officials. The website provides a “Dictionary and Glossary” of terms and abbreviations found in the records.

Even if only one relative of your family who immigrated to North America or elsewhere was in British India, then those records may preserve where that one person was born. If you cannot find where your branch of the family came from using North American records, for example, then switch to the sibling or cousin who went to British India. With a collection of this size with a searchable online database, the chances of finding a long lost relative is very good.

American Presbyterian Ministers and their Ulster Origins

11 Nov By Leave a Comment

One of the strategies I’m always preaching in Scots-Irish immigrant research is to make sure you research the minister of the congregation where your ancestor’s attended. The reason is that during the 1700s, it was common for ministers to bring all or parts of their congregations to North America with them. To find out where the minister pastored in Ireland may be to find out where your ancestors were from in Ulster.

To assist you in this search, there is a source which I would like to bring to your attention.  It is Rev. David Stewart’s Fasti of the American Presbyterian Church: treating of ministers of Irish origin who labored in America during the eighteenth century (Belfast: Bell and Logan, 1943). This work contains record of 156 ministers who immigrated to the United States from Ulster. After much hunting, I finally found a copy at the Presbyterian Historical Society in Ireland:  www.presbyterianhistoryireland.com. It’s most impressive. It’s a lesser known resource which should be added to the works already in print on Irish Presbyterian ministers.

When consulting this work, or any others, just be aware, just because a minister was born in Ulster, does not mean he actually pastored in Ulster. He may have immigrated as a child and studied in America. This is one consideration. The main reasons you would check Stewart’s work is if your ancestor was the minister or you suspect a congregational migration from Ulster. If this is found to be true, it goes a long way towards solving your immigration problem.

The average Presbyterian register in Ireland begins in the 1820s and 1830s. If your ancestors immigrated in the 1700s, then church registers in Ireland will not help. Books about ministers trained in Ireland or Scotland may or may not help, making Stewart’s work from the American angle extremely valuable. Definitely consult it. Most research guides actually miss this one source.

Black Biographical Dictionaries

12 Jun By Leave a Comment

The collection “Black Biographical Dictionaries, 1790-1950,” is a major gathering of old biographical dictionaries containing more than 30,000 references. The entries record famous and historic, as well as average people. The 297 volumes, on 1070 microfiche range from listings of national activists, state and local personalities, women, professional directories, fraternal order members, church and missionary listings among others. This collection is widely available. The titles come from more than 100 public and private repositories across the United States and Great Britain. The compilers of this massive African American library include; Randall K. Burkett, Nancy Hall Burkett, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. This source may be your first step in tying into your Irish line.

If a former slave ancestor is mentioned in these works, the chances of the owner or series of owners being mentioned is very good. For example, volumes 181-183 are Abigail Field Mott’s Biographical Sketches and Interesting Anecodotes of Persons of Color published in 1826, 1837 and 1839. These are descriptions of freed slaves or individuals from free families. The sketches frequently mention birthplaces, parents’ names, and former slave owners. This could very well connect you into an Irish slave master, who was also family.

This important collection is available on microfiche at many libraries and archives. There is a three volume index to this collection titled Black Biography, 1790-1950: A Cumulative Index. The first two volumes index biographical sketches alphabetically; volume three is an index by place of birth, occupation, religion and sex.

A second series supplements the dictionaries as new books have been identified. These also are indexed. Both the supplement and the index can be found at any number of university and academic archives.

Remember, what made a person worthy of a biographical sketch historically in the African American community, is different than in the white community.

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