India Office Records: Ecclesiastical Returns

Copies of registers of baptisms, marriages and burials sent to London by the chaplains and ministers from India, Burma, and other areas under the administration of the East India Company or the Government of India. These records relate almost entirely to European and Eurasian Christians. Few local converts are included. With the exception of Registrar marriages and the Kuwait registers, few civil registrations are included in the returns. Dates of birth and death often appear in baptismal and burial entries. There are three main series covering the three Presidencies of Bengal, Madras and Bombay from the early 18th century to 1947. A small number of returns from post-Independence India and Pakistan is in a separate series, so are the returns from the Princely States between 1890 and 1946. Burma is included in the Bengal series until 1936, but a separate series was started in 1937 with the separation of Burma from India. The following is a summary of the returns covering India, Burma, and elsewhere:. Bengal 1713-1947, N/1; Madras 1698-1947, N/2; Bombay 1709-1947, N/3; India and Pakistan 1949-c1968, N/4; Indian (Princely) States 1890-1946, N/5; Burma 1800s-1936, N/1; 1937-1957, N/10; Roman Catholic returns for each Presidency were incorporated in the main series except for a short period of time, 1835-1856, during which separate series was kept: N/1/RC, N/2/RC, and N/3/RC; Registrar marriages in India and Burma 1852-1911, N/11; Other areas:. St Helena 1767-1835, N/6; Fort Marlborough [Benkulen, Sumatra] 1759-1825, N/7; Prince of Wales Island [Penang], Malacca and Singapore 1799-1829 in N/8, continued in the Bengal returns 1830-1868, N/1. For Malacca marriages 1820-1824, see also IOR: R/9/39/3; Macao and Whampoa [Canton] 1820-1833, N/9; Kuwait 1937-1961, N/12; Aden 1840-1948, N/13; most of the Aden entries also appear in the Bombay returns

From the late 17th century, the chaplains and ministers in India began to transmit copies of baptisms, marriages and burials relating mainly to Europeans and Eurasian Christians to the East India Company/British Indian Administration and thence to London. The same process was also practised in other areas administered by the East India Company and the Government of India starting from various dates. This practice largely discontinued after Indian Independence except in places where small British communities survived. Occasional civil and ecclesiastical returns continued to be sent to London until 1968.

Unrestricted