The history of British India (1600-1947) continues to fascinate the imagination. British India included what is today Bangladesh, Burma, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Untold numbers of Irish were there. 

The problem with British India research is there are almost too many records! Fortunately there are some major websites which help to sort through the archives of material. Extensive collections are at the British Library, National Archives, and on microfilm at the Family History Library. This includes records for the British Army, East India Company, and the India Office. There is no shortage in either records or interest.

The East India Company from 1600-1859 acted as the government in British India, with its own private army apart from the British Army. The subcontinent was divided into three Presidencies: Bengal, Bombay and Madras. In 1858, the Company was replaced by a single new department of state, the India Office.

The British Library: http://indiafamily.bl.uk/UI  has a growing database “India Office Family History Search” which documents British and Europeans in India from about 1600-1949. It includes 300,000 births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials in the India Office Records and biographical notes from varied sources. A second major database is the Families in British India Society: www.new.fibis.org  of more than 937,000 individual names. 

It has been estimated that some 2 million Europeans and Anglo-Indians, mainly soldiers, merchants and their families are buried on the Indian subcontinent. The British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia: www.bacsa.org.uk funds repair, restoration, cleaning, transcribing, photographing and they publish their research.

Concerning the Irish and British India, it doesn’t get more exotic than this! Remember, while many stayed, many more would later go elsewhere around the world.