Genealogy Chat

Just found a rellie on 1851 census where it states she is the widow of an Officer. One child born Chatham Kent - i know this is/was a naval town and 4 other children born East Indies B S. Is there any web sites anyone could suggest i might find details of the husband and do you know if the births would be on 1837 many thanks Mo

Mo Jo BS means British Subject. Joy

Thanks Joy How silly can i get!! Mo

Hi Mo Jo There are special volumes for registering Army births overseas. I think they are on 1837 now - someone who uses the site can put you right on this. The thing to be aware of, though, is that often the entry is simply the baptism carried out by the Army chaplain, so you don't necessarily get mother's maiden name. On the other hand, the husband's details should help you with researching him. (I've used the word Army to cover all services)

Thanks Ebenezer Sorry for the delay, had to go out and get some printer ink. I just get a gut feeling that maybe this person was in the Navy seeing as they lived in Chatham Kent. My Geography is terrible, not even sure where East Indies is. I will have a look on 1837, but, he was born c 1796, (presume English) last child on census born 1841 in East Indies so presume if his wife was with him (she is English) then it would tend to be more merchant Navy. Can see myself getting in a right mess with this one!! Mo

Chatham was also a large Army Garrison, if you have the age of the child born in Chatham you may find the baptism in the BVRI. Also, you can access the parish records on line at City Ark, there are lots of baptims for children of soldiers and sailors. http://cityark.medway.gov.uk/ If you like to PM me the childs aproximate age, plus the Mother's name I will check the BVRI for you. Jennifer

Hi Mo JO & Jenifer, Could I intrude on your thread please? I'm interested in this subject as I too have a relative born in East Indies, (India by the way) I tried the normal routes as I thought, Southport GRO Overseas Section all with no luck. My relative was a Naval Engineer. Advice was given to contact the India Office in London for a birth search, the problem here was they wanted was about £19 for the search and cost of birth certificate in the region of £37. I haven't got that kind of cash for one certificate at the moment. So I am interested in what you've said Jenifer. What is the BVRI, is it a pay per view web site or can you purchase a disk? My relative came from Staffordshire so would the Cityark web site be usefull for that area too? I've had a look, but no joy so far. I am searching in the right place, Parish Registers? Kind Regards and apologies for the intrusion. Lou

BIVRI is a set of 16 CDs of baptisms and marriages, obtainable from Latter Day Saints. You can find details of it at www.familysearch.org Products/Databases/Vital Records Indexes are the links to follow.

Hi Geoff, Thanks for that, I will take a look, do you think they are worth buying? Everyone on this site seems to have access to lots a different CD's etc, and I don't know what to get myself. I feel terrible asking for help, but if I could buy some then I could repay the members back. Regards Lou

The City Ark site only covers the Medway area, North Kent. Bit of a pain to use as the entries aren't indexed, but they have original scans of the parish records for many of the parishes. I found out one of my rellies was the parish clerk in Swanscombe and it was a really weird feeling looking at these entries knowing he could have written some of them. It was sad too, the number of burials where the entry read 'unknown man found drowned' presumably fished out of the estuary.

Yes you can look at the GRO Overseas stuff & Chaplains returns on 1837-online. GRO Overseas indexes & Army Chaplains returns are different. GRO Overseas index - with records from 1837 - will give you the same information as a standard English cert of the same period. (And despite them saying it costs more, I only got charged £7 for a marriage cert which had to be looked up specially & hand-written: I did give them the reference & exact date though) It is my understanding that Army Chaplains Returns pre-1837 are just like parish records. Sorry don't know about exact info cos I've not needed one pre-1837 yet.

Just for information the East Indies were not confined to India but included Malaye, Singapore, the Phillipines and lots of islands in what we would now call the far east. If you eMail me with names and dates I'll doa look up on 1837 for you. Keith