Karen de Bruyne – “Beyond India”.
The Honourable East India Company was founded at the end of the 16th century. Its royal charter, granted by Queen Elizabeth I in 1600, gave it exclusive rights to trade to India and the Far East and its first trading post in India was set up at the city of Surat in 1607. King Charles II extended the company’s charter and its influence in India grew until the end of the 18th century when it controlled the whole country.
This talk will focus on the records and sources available for those places the HEIC “ruled” outside of India. Karen will use some examples from her own family history to show how these sources can help us to learn more about our family’s lives.
Karen de Bruyne was Brown and should have been Bruijn!
Karen de Bruyne – lives in Enfield North London with her grown up son and husband. Her interest in family history started when her son was very small and she found the Brown family bible on a book shelf at her parents house.
In her past life she has been a bank clerk, management accountant and an FE Lecturer (business start up , Maths, English and IT for a land based college), since 2021 she has been running her genealogy research business “Not Just Any Family”.
Karen has been researching her family (including husband’s multi national family) for over 20 years, and research now extends to all 5 continents. She manages 11 DNA tests for members of her family on all the platforms, (including Y DNA and Mt DNA – not that these have been of any help!) and have solved many a stubborn brick wall with the help of DNA cousins.
She completed the PG certificate Genealogical, Palaeographic & Heraldic Studies in 2019 and decided to take a break for a few years whilst dealing with some family matters. Karen also achieved “British India Ancestors” with The National Institute of Genealogical Studies and has taken various Pharos courses and is an associate of AGRA and a member of APG.
A volunteer for the Society of Genealogists, hosting and co-hosting online talks and is the events coordinator and executive committee member of the London Westminster and Middlesex Family History Society. Her areas of interest are London, British India and its wider diaspora especially Malaya (A.K.A. Prince of Wales Island, Straits Settlement etc.) Thailand, Singapore, Burma and Ceylon. Also on the approved researcher list at The British Library Asia and Africa Reading room – for which she had to take a test!
Given a number of talks to various groups including the Society of Genealogists, Scottish Indexes conference, WI, Probus, Hertfordshire Family History Society, London Westminster and Middlesex Family History Society.
With any excuse to visit an archive or library she will do lots of “look up” work for people and fellow genealogists, one of the most interesting was for someone doing a house history.
Also a keen photographer, loves swimming, gardens and the countryside, often visiting family in the Far East where she enjoys exploring new archives and libraries.
