Indian (British) Birth

[melmaree]

Hi

I have a copy of an Australian Passport application which lists my gg grandfathers father as being of "Indian (British) Nationality "born in Bombay India.   My g grandfather was born on 15 Oct 1876  in Bombay, India(details from the passport application, although on his marriage cert it says he was born in Rawalpindi, Punjab). 

I was wondering if someone was of Indian(British) nationality born in Bombay (prob born in the 1850's)would this mean that their parents were both British? and  would their be some type of birth records available at all? 

Thanks

Mel.

[ShaunJ]

Can you post his name?  There are British India baptism records on familysearch, FindMyPast, FIBIS etc which may shed some light

[iluleah]

British births in India would be held at the British Library ( India Office)
http://indiafamily.bl.uk/ui/Sources.aspx

[melmaree]

Thanks for the replies.
My gg grandfather was mahomed deen(aka Charles deen), his father was Herbert deen and mother fuzelnor hassar(as per mahomeds marriage cert) I have posted on here about a few things relating to the Deens before but am now really trying to investigate the Indian/British side.

[ShaunJ]

Not finding anything in the India records...

[melmaree]

Thanks , I don't think this is going to be easy. Are some of the British Indian births not searchable online? Would the British library have records that aren't searchable online?

[iluleah]

Thanks , I don't think this is going to be easy. Are some of the British Indian births not searchable online? Would the British library have records that aren't searchable online?

In reality many records are not searchable online and yes like any archive the British Library will have lots of records that you will never find online

[cupoflife]

Hi Mel,
I would think that most of the British India BDM's are from Church records. Was your Charles baptised at birth? or later as an adult? (often in order to marry in a church). He may not have been baptised. Also some records may been in poor condition, damaged or indecipherable, so they may be awaiting specialist restoration or more skilled transcribers.

There are some LDS family history centres in Australia that hold a large collection of INDIA material permanently onsite, including Births, Deaths and Marriages indexes on microfilm. http://wiki.fibis.org/index.php/FamilySearch_Centres (see under Australia)
LDS centres are run by volunteers to help anyone researching family history. These volunteers are often transcribing records including at times British India records. It is best to ring before hand so that you visit when their India records specialist is on duty. If you are unable to visit in person, I suggest you contact them with all the relevant details and one of the volunteers may be able to look it up for you.

Alternatively you could email all the relevant details to apac-enquiries@bl.uk which is the British Library India Office Family History Section http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/iofhs.shtml  Make sure to inform them that you live in Australia and have been unable to find his birth online. They may take some time to reply as they have a lot of enquiries.

Another option is to post a British India Office birth lookup request on Rootschat, if anyone visiting the archives would be kind enough to help with your search.

cheers
cupoflife

[melmaree]

Thanks for all the information. I think I might start with the LDS centres here first and visit when I get a chance. I'm not sure when Mahomed(Charles was baptised). All the info I have is that he arrived here around 1894 and was born apparently on 15 oct 1876, although I'm not sure how accurate this info is as he did say on his passport app that he was a widower, when in fact he had a wife alive and well!!