Turkey: British in Constantinople

[Jojosam]

Hello

My husband's family has some Scottish ancestors who moved to/were born/died in Constantinople (Istanbul) in the period 1850-1910. As we will be in Istanbul this week, I would like to try to find some records of their existence there, especially of two girls for whom we have birth datesw but nothing else.

Does anyone have any suggestions about where I should start?

Thanking you with fingers crossed.

Jojosam

[charlotteCH]

Why not phone the British Consulate there as soon as you arrive and ask where such records will be held?  I reckon they will be very helpful if they possibly can be.

 And if you are there on a Sunday there is a church service in the chapel at the Consulate- we attended Morning Prayer there- just turn up.  In the chapel there is a headstone from a grave of an English clergyman  from hundreds of years back which we fo8nd interesting and touching- poor man must have had a tough time.

Let us know how you get with this please

charlotte

[Jojosam]

Hello Charlotte

Many thanks for your response. It is such an obvious move I should have thought of it. Unfortunately we had left before your post went up and, as it turned out, our two stays in Istanbul turned out to be so packed we barely had time to catch our breath.

Also, we were advised by someone else that all the British records had been repatriated to Britain many decades ago and our best bet would be to check with the British Archives. This we will do when we finally make it to the UK. Let's hope we find what we're looking for.

Lucky you living there. We thoroughly enjoyed Istanbul (and the rest of Turkey that we visited) and have marked it down for a return trip one day. Even better if we have a purpose like checking out old cemeteries.

Thank you again.

Jojosam