FIBIS Blog
An assortment of British India Directories have been added to Findmypast in a browsable format and searchable by year and title. For those of you that don’t have a Findmypast subscription you may find many of these directories freely available online. See the FREE FIBIS British India Directory resources section at the bottom of this article for more details.
Findmypast describes the collection as follows:
What can these records tell me?
The almanacs in this collection offer a comprehensive view of life in British India. They contain lists of medical staff, veterinary staff, police, civil servants, and engineers working in India, as well as lists of debtors, charity members, and freemasons. You can also discover practical information for living in India, such as gardening calendars and advice for posting parcels and letters.
The army lists are divided into different sections, including the names of those who served in the infantry and cavalry, the names of officers, those serving as instructors, and those working in other departments such as accounting and engineering.
The civil lists provide details of those working in the Indian Civil Service.
Discover more about these records
Amongst these directories, you will find the Asylum Press Almanack. Sold in aid of the Lawrence Asylum in Ootacamund, a school for the children of British soldiers, it includes accounts of the attempts to relieve the effects of the devastating famine of 1878.
The Lawrence Asylums were founded by Sir Henry Lawrence, the prominent Victorian statesmen. Based in the cool of the hill stations, these schools were formed as a retreat for children from the extremes of the tropical climate. The schools aimed to teach children discipline, obedience, piety, and respectability, and to this end, the pupils were clad in drab, sensible clothing.
Titles included in this collection
Below is a list of the different directory titles included in this collection.
Asylum Press Almanack & Directory of Madras 1918-1919
Asylum Press Almanack 1873-1882
Bengal & Agra Directory 1848
Bengal Civil List 1878-1945
Bengal Directory & Annual Register 1825-1879
Bengal Directory 1877-1879
Bombay Almanack & Directory 1863-1868
Bombay Civil List 1877
Bombay Commercial Calendar & Directory 1845
Civil List for India, Pakistan & Burma 1948
Cones & Co Directory & Almanac 1878-1895
East India Calendar 1792
East India Register & Army List 1837-1845
India List & India Office List 1902-1905
India Office & Burma Office List 1945
India Army List 1896-1945
Madras Year Book 1923
Nizam ‘s Regular Forces Army List 1936
Thacker ‘s Guide to Calcutta 1906
Thacker ‘s India Directory 1915-1934
Times of India Bombay Directory 1932-1939
FREE FIBIS British India Directory resources
Many of these directories are freely available online and some births, marriages, deaths and passenger lists have been extracted and posted on the fibis database website.
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Directories online -This fibiwiki articles contains links to online editions of directories.
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Newspapers and journals online – This fibiwiki article contains links to online editions of historical newspapers and periodicals that are of use to the British India family historian
- FIBIS database
- Directories – Transcribed entries from various directories.
- Other publications – Transcribed entries from other publications.
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