Sources of the information found in the India Office Family History Search

The minutes of the Court of Directors constitute the central record of the Company's activities in London. The stockholders' activities are recorded more briefly in the minutes of the Court of Proprietors. Biographical information contained in the Court Minutes includes: appointment records of Home Civil Servants of the East India Company; pre-1749 appointment records of Covenanted Overseas Civil Servants of the East India Company; pre-1858 appointment records of Uncovenanted Overseas Civil Servants; early appointments of European Officers of the East India Company Armies, East India Company army surgeons, chaplains in India, officers of East India ships.

The series of Company correspondence comprises letters in a chronological sequence relating to all kinds of subjects. The series includes: 'home' correspondence; correspondence with the Board of Control; early correspondence with the Company's overseas factories, and official correspondence with Bengal, India, Madras and Bombay. A limited amount of biographical information relating to senior Company servants may be found in some correspondence.

Letters, minutes, diaries and other papers for each of the factories, presidencies and agencies established by the Company in India and elsewhere from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth century. The biographical information contained in this series is limited, relating mostly to subordinate (uncovenanted) overseas Civil Servants of the early period. Also includes information on wills, administrations, probates, inventories and estates of covenanted overseas Civil Servants of 1618-1725.

The Haileybury records relate to the recruitment and training of the Company's writers and civil servants at the East India College, Haileybury (1806-1857), and include appointment papers of the East India Company's civil servants (1749-1805) J/1/1-19, giving details of parentage and educational attainment (the series is incomplete). It is continued by the 'Committee of College References and Papers' (1806-56), J/1/21-90. A catalogue has been published: A.J. Farrington, The Records of the East India College, Haileybury, and other institutions (London, 1976).

The Accountant-General's Department dealt with the comprehensive and systematic recording of receipts and disbursements by the Company and the India Office, with the staff of the home establishment and their salaries, with the estates and wills of persons dying in India, and with the leave and furlough pay and pensions of members of the Indian civil and military services. Among financial activities peculiar to the Company period are the ledgers of the early joint-stock voyages and the registers of Company stockholding and stock transfers. The records reflect almost all the functions of the Company and the India Office, and also include the records of the London offices of various Indian railways, irrigation and canal companies.

These records cover most aspects of the organisation and operations of the Company's maritime service, the Bombay Marine, the Indian Navy and the Bengal Pilot Service.

The military records reflect and document the whole spectrum of military affairs both of the East India Company's armies and of the armies of the Government of India. Some relate to the appointment, pay, leave, promotions and pensions of individual officers and soldiers in the Indian Army, the Indian Medical Service and the Royal Indian Navy. A catalogue has been published: A.J. Farrington, Guide to the Records of the India Office Military Department (London, 1982).

These records provide documentation on matters involving bridges, roads, canals, and irrigation, civil engineering, railways, telegraphs, wireless telegraphy and civil aviation, until that responsibility was devolved to Indian provincial governments. Some correspondence contains information relating to appointments made in the UK from 1855-1924 of Uncovenanted Overseas Civil Servants, Warrant officers in the Company’s armies serving mainly in the Ordnance, Commissariat and Public Works Department.

These records deal with a wide range of matters concerning the domestic affairs of British India. They include some records of appointment for staff serving in India.

Papers relating to issues on which Secretaries of State acted personally were kept by the private secretaries and were not registered in India Office departments. The papers concern major political and constitutional issues, including relations with princely states and foreign governments.

Returns of baptisms, marriages and burials, relating mainly to European and Eurasian Christians in India, Burma and other areas administered by the East India Company and the Government of India. The returns were transmitted by chaplains and ministers to the Government of India, and thence to the India Office, primarily for record purposes. Apart from the series for the three Indian presidencies (Bengal 1713-1948; Madras 1698-1948, and Bombay, 1709-1948), there are returns for St Helena (1767-1835), Fort Marlborough (1759-1825), Penang (1799-1829), Macao and Whampoa (1820-1833), Burma (1937-1957), India and Pakistan (1949-1968), Kuwait (1937-1961), and Aden (1840-1969). Copies of the contemporary indexes and microfilm of many of the registers may be consulted directly in the Reading Room.

Baptism records generally give the following details:

• name of church
• date of birth
• date of baptism
• name of child
• names of parents
• abode
• profession of parents
• copy-signature by whom baptized

Marriage records generally give the following details:

• name of church
• date of marriage
• names of groom and bride (include her maiden name)
• ages (age over 21 expressed as “full”)
• rank of profession
• names of fathers
• by banns or licence
• copy-signatures of both parties and witnesses
• name of priest

Burial records generally give the following details:

• place of burial
• date of death
• name
• age
• profession
• date of burial
• cause of death
• name of chaplain (no signature)
• Details

Various series and compilations of a biographical nature, which do not fall into the main archive classes, are brought together here: bonds, agreements and warrants for civil servants and other residents in India; records relating to Europeans in India and "personal records" compilations made at East India House.

These records, from the offices of Residents and Political Agents in Indian States, consist of material about the internal affairs of particular states and the activities of their rulers. This website includes Consular returns of births and deaths registered at Srinagar, Kashmir, 1940-1946.

This website includes marriages at Malacca, 1820-1824.