India: Madron as place of birth

[VillageDuckpond]

I have come across Madron as a place of birth in India in the early 1870s but cannot find it on recent maps. Could the name have changed? It is very tempting to presume it is a typo but I have seen it elsewhere!

[mshrmh]

A couple of ideas - India in 1870s would I think include what is now Pakistan and Bangladesh, so you may need to extend the area of search. Also I've found spellings of Indian place names to sometimes be rather fluid - somebody's best guess based on what they heard. I've found some by saying out loud the name and then looking at the map & trying out some of those names. Also spellings have changed (Bombay/Mumbai, Benares/Varanasi etc) - perhaps an old atlas at a library may be of use?

Madras (Chennai) was the one that came to mind, but doesn't seem that likely to me.

Have you tried any of the online searches - eg
http://indiafamily.bl.uk/UI/

[VillageDuckpond]

Thank you for your reply.

That Indian site you gave me gave someone's surname as Madron but thank you anyway! What I am looking for is a Huddleston birth in a place called Madron in the 1870s

I have just done a Multi-map search in India for Madron and it gave me Mutaram in Andra Pradesh. I think this is a possibility as the East India Company was pretty prevelant in that area.

Is there a reason for India changing so many of its place names, do you know?

[mshrmh]

Hi again - I've just done a search using the link & put in Huddleston - I've not got the birth, but there's a death listed for Graham Egerton Huddleston (of 70th Foot) at Multan and a couple of others at Madras - just in case there's any connection.

Re the name change - I gather it's to do with getting back to reflecting the local name rather than an anglicised version - there was a piece on Radio 4 not so long ago - probably Word of Mouth.

[VillageDuckpond]

I have definitely got a birth for a Winifred Amy HUDDLESTON c. 1872 Madron, India. I am pretty sure I got that from the FIBIS website.

[avm228]

Winifred's birthplace in given as Madras in the 1881 census (RG11/2163/100/37) and again in the 1891 census (RG12/1701/53/6).  The latter has been mistranscribed on at least one site as Madron for both Winifred and her father.

Anna

[VillageDuckpond]

Anna

Thank you for your reply and I have now corrected my notes re Madron.

After all this I think I have been chasing the wrong woman! It is so easy to do, I find.  A while back I made a note that my great uncle, Phillip HENSTOCK (born 1881, West Derby, Lancashire), married a Winnie HUDDLESTON possibly in India or Burma. I cannot remember where I found this information, however. Is there any way I can prove or disprove this, do you know?

Sasha

[Barbara F]

Hello Duck

Have you seen this?  It is the family that you started following up

http://indiafamily.bl.uk/UI/FullDisplay.aspx?RecordId=014-000144626

The IGI has a birth of another Winifred Huddlestone parents  Henry Batten Huddleston and Mary Louisa  born 23 June 1891 and bap 29 July 1891 in  Tundla, West Bengal, India.

This baptism fits with the Winifred in the 1901 census that we found for you in the chatroom yesterday.

I cannot see a marriage to a Philip Henstock on the usual "India" sites.  Maybe you found it in the overseas marriage indexes?

Barbara

[Barbara F]

It looks as though Henry Batten married Mary Louisa Fraser on 29 October 1887.

http://indiafamily.bl.uk/UI/NonTabBriefDisplay.aspx?SearchType=QuickSearch

Perhaps these are the Mr and Mrs Huddlestone with a Mrs Henstock who  return to the UK from Burma in 1919.

We really need to find the marriage of Philip to Winifred though.

Barbara