INDIA

Soldiers of the Raj – Compiled by George William de Rhé-Philipe & Miles Irving I.C.S
Book (ASIA 355 DER)

For military history buffs and those interested in finding out more about their family in India, this is for you.   This new book is a large but very well set out and easy to read volume in two parts.  Part 1 is a List of Inscriptions on Christian Tombs or Monuments in the Punjab, North West Frontiers Province, Kashmir and Afghanistan regions, while Part 2 has extensive biographical notes relating to those people inscribed in Part 1.  Near the front of the book is an index of names taken from the inscriptions so it is easy to see if one of your family is there.  The inscriptions detail the full name, date of death, and circumstances of the death of the soldier, while the biographies in Part 2 portray the military personnel file of the officers.  

An example of what you will find, taking a name randomly from Part 2: Page 303 Sewell, Henry Thomas, Lieutenant (1829-1856) Grave at Jhang No 897.  Eldest son of Col. Thomas Sewell, Bengal Infantry.  Born Calcutta 6/11/1829, entered army 1848. Arrived India Dec 1848, was sent to Barrackpore – 35^th N.I. regiment etc.etc.  All of his military duties, places he was sent to, some battles he was in are documented. 

This book is a large book with a lot of reading in it, but records are clear, and the index is extensive.  The biographies make very interesting reading.  We know from history that India was ruled by England from 1858 until 1947 when British India was split up into two Dominion States, the Union of India (later the Republic of India) and the Dominion of Pakistan (later the Islamic Republic of Pakistan).  Later still the eastern half of Pakistan became known as Bangladesh.

The eastern part of the Indian Empire became Burma which gained independence in 1948. 

Two other books of interest in the subject of the Military in India are:

War Deaths in the Indian Services 1914-1921 Asia Ref. 355-305 Gen is a comprehensive index with name, rank, regiment, and year of death.

A Register of Titles of the Units of the HEIC and Indian Armies 1666-1947 by Chris Kempton Asia Ref. 355.31 KEM.

This is a large book with information well laid out in 19 parts with an extensive appendix in the back of the book.  An index at the back details all the units of Cavalry, Pioneer & Infantry, where they can be found in this book with page and part numbers.  If you know the regiment of your ancestor, there will be a wealth of information to be found.  Near the front is a page of abbreviations that will help you navigate the pages.

Some of the Parts are Intelligence & Military Police, Sappers & Miners/Engineers, Signals, Infantry, Volunteer & Territorial Forces, The Medical Services, Burma forces 1942-1946, Labour & Pioneer Corps, and even Veterinary, Remount & Military Farms.   There is so much in this to be digested it is well worth the visit, even if you do not have any personal involvement in the area.

 

ENGLAND

Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief.  The Small Projects Index in one CD published by the Devon Family History Society jointly with the Devon Records Office. CD 1573

Includes over 63,000 entries taken from 129 books in a single index.  Chapters include Your Family Tree, where and how to start; describing family relationships; Chapman county codes, which are three letter codes for each County; about parish registers, civil registrations; about the IGI.  To have all this information on one CD is remarkable.  The CD is easy to navigate, and there is also a search feature to enable us to look for family names.  Just go to the search page which has alpha buttons which lead you onto the name of choice.  This CD is a great resource for those new to family history as it explains how to do things, where to start, what to do next etc.  It would have helped explain a lot to me if it was available when I started.  

Admittedly it only covers Devon County but we can learn quite a lot about general researching by scrolling through the chapters. There are discussions on Poor Law Records, with recommended sources on the Poor Law, and why you would need to look at the Poor Law Records; apprenticeship records; and settlement records.  This “Small Projects” index was commenced in the Northern summer of 2002 after some members of the Devon FHS were invited to visit the Devon Record Office, Exeter to look behind the scenes.  Quite a few interesting and little known about documents were viewed which led to the committee deciding to index these documents for the benefit of the Society and the Record Office. Hence the “Small Projects” was born.   It is now available to all in one easy to navigate CD.

Wills at Salisbury 1464-1858  WIL 929.

These new books are an index in two Volumes of probate records held by the Wiltshire and Swindon Archives.  Volume 1 has an extensive introduction with detailed maps of where the Parishes are the names of the Parishes, various statistics, explanations of abbreviations used in the books, and the A-K index.  Volume 2 starts with the rest of ‘K’ then continues with the L-Z index.

If you have ancestors in Wiltshire, it might be worthwhile browsing through this book.  It will give you reference numbers to enable you to find the actual wills in the archives.

 

SWEDEN

Swedish Research Basics by E. Wade Hone CD 338

This little gem was discovered by accident.  However, it is an easy to navigate CD written especially for those who are researching families in Sweden, a simple introduction to research.     

It has a full power point presentation of instructions on how to search in Sweden.  Some topics covered include Geographical/Jurisdiction, which is how the country of Sweden is structured complete with a map; understanding patronymics, name equivalents and essential vocabulary.  There is a list of all the Provinces, Parishes, Villages, and farms.   Individual records are sourced from two types.  As the Lutheran Church is the main church in Sweden, the Lutheran records are the main ones with births, deaths and marriages, moving records, clerical surveys etc.   A civil record with civil registrations, emigration, probate, military records is the second type.   Further references link to a table of Counties in the Province with useful web sites and addresses.

There are some reference books to help with research in this area.

The Beginner’s Guide to Swedish Genealogical Research – Thomasen’s Genealogical Centre – EUR Section.

Swedish Genealogical Dictionary, Third Edition – Complied by Phyllis J Pladsen and Joseph C Huber – EUR 939.7 PLA

This book is made up of four sections.  Section 1 is a very useful word list to help with deciphering the language; Section 2 has abbreviations, Section 3 is an extensive reference section with Maps of Swedish Provinces and Counties, Emigration records lists and indexes, sources for Swedish-American Church Records, and Swedish archive references.  The last section has handwriting samples.

The Scandinavians in Australia by Olavi Koivukangas and John Stanley Martin – EUR 994.004395 KOI.

This last book is one of the Australian Ethnic Heritage Series of books on different nationalities living in Australia.   It writes about the conditions and where the immigrants lived.  A lot of them came out to Australia for the gold, many arriving to mine in Victoria and NSW in the 1850’s.

Some also travelled to Western Australia. There is a bibliography and an extensive index in the back of the book.  It covers the years 1870-1985.

 

IRELAND

Irish Ancestors – A Pocket Guide to Your Family History. By John Grenham IRL 929.1 GRE

This is a terrific little book with everything you need to research family in Ireland.  Being one of a series, this is a handy reference guide for those wanting the essential information on finding their ancestors.   Chapters include the basics, where to start, the major sources, research services, how to read the census records.  Myths and legends are despatched with gay abandon, for instance it is not quite true to say that all the records were destroyed in a fire in 1922.  While it is true that the PRO suffered a major fire, and many records were destroyed, there are many records that survived.  Non Church of Ireland parish records, civil records of births, deaths, and marriages, property records and later censuses survived.   For the material lost, fragments, abstracts and transcripts of original documents remain.

Griffiths Valuation – Index CD 18, 

Griffiths Valuation 1849-1861 Fiche Vol. 1-6

Now you have commenced your research into Irish ancestors, the Griffiths Valuation is a good place to search.  With the Irish census records being destroyed in the 1922 fire, the Griffiths Valuation became the most authentic source of information on Irish householders for genealogists becoming known as the 19^th century census substitute.

This comprehensive Primary Valuation of Ireland was undertaken to determine the tax each person had to pay towards support of the poor within their poor law union (a division of land) so is therefore an invaluable reference as it is the only detailed guide on where people lived and what property they owned or lived on in the mid nineteenth century.

The CD contains an index of surnames of householders, with their parish, union and townland (village etc.)

Once you have your parish and townland, you can then go to the fiche to get more detailed information.  I found the fiche a little tricky to navigate, but once I sorted out where to look it was quite easy.

There is an index of townlands at the beginning of each County with a page number beside each.  Knowing the page number means going straight to the information for your ancestor (lessee) which states  the landlord’s name (lessor),  if it is a farmhouse, office (which could be just a barn or a shed), and the land itself with it’s rateable valuation amount.   The Griffiths Valuation should be on the list of resources for researching family history in Ireland.