Computer Act!ve - UK (2022-01-19)

Family Tree

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YourGenealogyProblemsSolved

T

hereareseveralonlinearchives

containi nginformationonBritons

whoworkedandlivedinI ndia

whileitw asunderBriti shimpe rialrule.

Theplac etos tartiswithFindmypast’s

(FMP)exclusive‘BritishinIndia’

collection ,whichspans1698 to1947.It’s

beenproduce dinpartnershipwiththe

BritishLibraryandisa fullyindexed

archiveofa round2.7millionrecords.

Narrow your searchtosix sets

FMP’scollection comprises 18recordsets

intotal.Afterloggingintoyouraccou nt,

goto(www.snipca.com/40409)toview

thefulllis t.Thevastbulkoftherecords

–around2.4million–arecontainedin

sixsets,coveringbirths/bapt isms,

marriages,deaths/burials,wills/probate,

armyandnavypensions,andEastIndia

CompanyandCivilServicepensi ons.

To searchallsixsets,visitwww.snipca.

com/40410thenen teryourancestor’s

surnam eintothe‘Lastname’field–you’ll

immediatelyseethe‘View2,424,

Results’buttonchang etor evealthe

numb erofmatches(110^1 inour

screenshotaboveright).Ifthat’stoo

many,usetheother fieldston arrow

resultsfurther usingcriterialikefirst

name^2 ,andyearofbi rth^3 anddeath^4.

Oncedone,clickthe‘View... Results’

buttontoseeasummaryofnames,birth

anddeath years(ifrecorde d)andtheyear

recordsetstoo,includingnewspapers,

direc toriesandgraveinscri ptions.Mostof

theFiBISrecordsarefreetoaccess,with

onlyasmallselectionof records

restrict edtomembersoft hesociety

(membershi pcosts£12peryear).

ForcesWarRecords(www.forces-war-

records.co .uk)provides detailed military

historiesformanyIndianunitsfighting

inbothworldwarsalongwithindividual

records.Ancestryhassomeuseful

recordstoo.Gotowww.snipca.

com/40413toviewitsdocu ments,

including650,000employmentrecords

fortheEastIndiaCompanyandIndia

Office.

Finally, ifyourancestorfoughtont he

MesopotamianFrontinWorld WarI,as

my great-grandfatherPercyPink did,

theymayhavetakenleaveinIndiaat

somepoint.IhavetwophotosofPercy

takenata picnicpartyinLando ur,

norther nIndia,on10August1918.By

checkinghisservicerecordonA ncestry

(www.snipca.com/40416),Idiscovered

hearr ivedinIndiaatBombay(see

screenshotbelow)andthathisvisitwas

partoftwomonths’leavegrantedfrom

JulytoSeptember1918.

oftherecord,aswellasde tailsof

therecordsetit self.Totheright

you’llseebuttonstoviewa

transcri ptand–ifavailable–an

imageoft heoriginalrecord,whichoften

contains moredatathanthetranscri pt.

Onerestrictionisthatinformation

frombi rthrecordsafter1915isli mitedin

acco rdancewithdata-protectionla ws.If

youfindyourancestoramongthesela tter

records,you’llseefewerdetailsandthere

won’tbeanoriginalimage.You’llneedto

visittheBritishLibraryinperson (see

http://www.snipca.com/40411fordetails)to

obtainthese.Somerecordsmaycontain

abbreviation sandot hertechnic alterms

you’renotfamiliarwi th–visitwww.snipca.

com/40412forane xcelle ntglossaryof terms.

Search ‘FamiliesinBritish

IndiaSociety’database

Anothe rgoodresourceistheFamiliesin

BritishIndiaSociety(FiBIS),whichoffers

afreeonlinedatabase(https://fibis.

ourarchives.online)ofo ver2million

records.Youcanse archthemby

surnam e,orbyclicki ngthe‘Advanced’

linktoa ddse archtermsincludingna me,

place andyearrange.

Somerecordsmay overlapwithFMP’s

collections ,butther earemany additional

Doanygenealogyprogram shavetools

thatcancolouris eoldphotos?

Alex Stewart

Theonly genealogyprogram that contains

acolourisingtool is MacFamilyTree

(www.snipca.com/4 0405 ), formacOS

only.Thereare freeonlineoptionsfor

Windowsusers, includingColorize (www.

snipca.com/3 8167 ), andMyHeritage

(www.myheritage.com/incolor), which

alsohasatoolforrestoringdamaged

photos.

Have agenealogyquestion forNick?

[email protected] with

‘GrowYourFamily Tree’inthe s ubject line.

NickPeersreve alswhich onlinerecordsshowwhether

yourance storsworkedforthe...

BritishEmpire inIndia

NickusedAncestrytoconfirmthathisgreat-

gran dfather tookleaveinIndia in

19 January–1February 2022 •Issue6 23

IfFindmypastproducestoomany

results,narr owyoursearchus ing

morespecificcriteria

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