Search for lost family home in Calcutta

[Daniel]

Hi,
I am from New York so it would be very difficult for me to access a lot of the British and French archives. My family is doing research on a French great-grandfather (Camille Francois Got) and his American wife (Agnes Philbin Got) who lived in Calcutta with their family. The father was apparently a hemp merchant. We managed to find St. Thomas church baptismal and a death records for two of their children through the India Office records. We were interested in finding out where their address was and whatever other details we can find out about their life there. We have several photographs of their house (one of them is attached) and an architect in the family has been trying to locate where it might have been using old maps and photographs of Calcutta and comparing them with modern maps and photographs. We think we might have found a few locations in the Chowringhee neighborhood but aren’t sure.

Beverly Hallam already gave me a warm welcome and some advice on how to start.

Do any of you have any recommendations on how to find their address and additional details of their life? We are assuming that their might be trade records, newspapers, club memberships, tax records etc. but are not having much luck finding anything. I asked a French genealogist about French records but they didn’t know where to look.

Thanks

Hi,
I am from New York so it would be very difficult for me to access a lot of the British and French archives. My family is doing research on a French great-grandfather (Camille Francois Got) and his American wife (Agnes Philbin Got) who lived in Calcutta with their family. The father was apparently a hemp merchant. We managed to find St. Thomas church baptismal and a death records for two of their children through the India Office records. We were interested in finding out where their address was a

[Daniel]

For pictures of the house in Calcutta and my French and American ancestors who lived there, please look at my pictures.

Thanks!

Hi,
I am from New York so it would be very difficult for me to access a lot of the British and French archives. My family is doing research on a French great-grandfather (Camille Francois Got) and his American wife (Agnes Philbin Got) who lived in Calcutta with their family. The father was apparently a hemp merchant. We managed to find St. Thomas church baptismal and a death records for two of their children through the India Office records. We were interested in finding out where their address was a

[Sylvia Murphy]

Hi Daniel – it took me a while to work through your long post which raised several issues.
Firstly – as to vital records in India – you have already discovered and used India Office Records on the Findmypast website. Have you also searched the French overseas archives – ANOM = Archives Nationales d’Outre mer? You can find these here: http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/anom/en/Recherches/IREL.html . There was a French territory named Chandernagor(e) a little to the north of Calcutta, so if your GOT ancestors had vital events registered there, then they will appear in the ANOM.

Have you managed to consult any of the Thackers Directories? These are essentially trade and residential directories for Bengal and then the whole of India which were published annually, However, not everyone was listed, and the annual updating was imperfect. I can tell you that in the 1895 edition there is just a single entry for the surname Got, and that is for C Got, Ralli Bros, residence: 3 Wood Street. Ralli Bros was a major firm, so next step is to see what his role was with them – however, the Commercial section entry just lists them as Merchants, 1 & 2 Church Lane, and then lists employees without allocating any particular role to any of them.

I have also checked the street directory for you. Wood Street seems to branch of Park Street (which is a major thoroughfare branching off Chowringhee Rd). C Got at No.3 is on the corner of Wood and Short Streets. His immediate neighbour at No.2 was A Campbell, and at No.4 on the other side of Short Street Surgeon-Lt-Col A F P M’Connell. The plots of land and houses in this area tended to be large and occupied by wealthy Europeans and wealthy Indians. I will endeavour to look out a contemporary map and copy a portion for you. (no guarantees as it is many years since I have looked at it.)

Hope the above is of some help to you.

[Daniel]

Sylvia,

Thank you so much! This is quite exciting. I haven’t looked at the sources you mentioned and am really a novice at this. I am going to forward your message to my architect cousin who has been searching old maps of Calcutta for the building.

Especially this one. He is trying to find another house with a front porch like the one in the picture.

http://rumsey.geogarage.com/maps/gct001429a.html

Many thanks! Will get back to you with our progress. One question, do you think this is a business address or a residential address?

Daniel

Hi,
I am from New York so it would be very difficult for me to access a lot of the British and French archives. My family is doing research on a French great-grandfather (Camille Francois Got) and his American wife (Agnes Philbin Got) who lived in Calcutta with their family. The father was apparently a hemp merchant. We managed to find St. Thomas church baptismal and a death records for two of their children through the India Office records. We were interested in finding out where their address was a

[Daniel]

Hi Sylvia,
Thanks again for your extremely helpful information on the Got address.

You wrote:

“I have also checked the street directory for you. Wood Street seems to branch of Park Street (which is a major thoroughfare branching off Chowringhee Rd). C Got at No.3 is on the corner of Wood and Short Streets. His immediate neighbour at No.2 was A Campbell, and at No.4 on the other side of Short Street Surgeon-Lt-Col A F P M ‘Connell.”

Is the street directory in the 1895 Thacker’s Directory because I couldn’t find it.

Also, we are trying to identify the house from an aerial view based on its shape. (The semicircular front porch would hopefully show up.) The best map of that area with an aerial view of the houses is Calcutta 1887-1894 survey by Strahan which I found in the book Mapping Calcutta. This is the exact same time that the Got family was there. I have attached the map and a photo of the house. Apparently there was a large lawn in front of it.

It seems like there are two plots that would fit the description. If you were walking down Short street from Wood, it would be the plot on the left and the one on the right. Both have very large lawns and both seem to have porch-like structures in the front. Can you tell me which plot is 3 Wood Street?

By the way, 1895-6 was the year when those photos were taken, so I think this would probably be the address.

I am also wondering if there are better maps from the time period which would show the shape of the houses more accurately. In addition, how long do you think a house like that would have lasted before it was torn down. If it stayed up for another 20 or 30 years, I imagine there would more photos of it.

Thanks again for your invaluable assistance.

Daniel

Hi,
I am from New York so it would be very difficult for me to access a lot of the British and French archives. My family is doing research on a French great-grandfather (Camille Francois Got) and his American wife (Agnes Philbin Got) who lived in Calcutta with their family. The father was apparently a hemp merchant. We managed to find St. Thomas church baptismal and a death records for two of their children through the India Office records. We were interested in finding out where their address was a

[Daniel]

The files didn’t upload because the size was too big. I am going to upload the 2 maps to my photo gallery. The photo of the house is there as well.

Hi,
I am from New York so it would be very difficult for me to access a lot of the British and French archives. My family is doing research on a French great-grandfather (Camille Francois Got) and his American wife (Agnes Philbin Got) who lived in Calcutta with their family. The father was apparently a hemp merchant. We managed to find St. Thomas church baptismal and a death records for two of their children through the India Office records. We were interested in finding out where their address was a

[Sylvia Murphy]

Daniel
I live in Sydney, not Calcutta – so I am no more able than you are to decide which house on your map will be No.3 Wood Street. You need to rely on the information I quoted from the Thackers Directory. The map that you have looks good to me and provides rather a lot of detail. Unfortunately despite hunting around, I have only been able to find older maps of Calcutta, and not the 1895 one which is very large scale.

Regarding the Thackers Indian Directory for 1895 – I use an old digitisation on CD-ROM. There is a section called Calcutta Street Directory within it, but I don’t know if this is digitised in versions you might find on Ancestry for example. I will try and upload a copy of the relevant part of the page. It is not inconceivable that the house of interest still stands. There are many old, Victorian era and earlier colonial buildings still in existence in Calcutta – or there were when I was last there in 2007.

You could also try joining the facebook group “Calcutta Photographs and Memories” and posting a pic of the house there. Please don’t overwhelm them with your stuff though – it is NOT a family history group, and moderated and run by a group of courteous knowledgeable local residents.

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

[Sylvia Murphy]

The other thing I meant to suggest was that you check out the New York Public Library. I know that they hold a substantial amount of very early books relating to Bengal, as these have been digitised and available on Archive.org (and maybe googlebooks – can’t remember). It is possible that they may have some more recent items of use to you.

[Daniel]

Thanks again, Sylvia.

I looked again at Thackers and found the Street Directory.

I also found a book called Mapping Calcutta, which has a Survey Map from 1888-1895 (the same years my family was there). They only show a small part of the map, but fortunately it focuses on the area around Wood Street. The two houses at the corner of Wood and Short look like they could be the Got residence since they have a big lawn in front and some kind of porch-like structure in front. (I will post the map in my gallery, as for some reason I can never upload a file to a message, even if it is just a screenshot)

I will have to look over the NYPL holdings. Fortunately, I live in Manhattan.

BTW, I am about to use the FIBIS research service for London.

I joined the Facebook group as well.

I will get back to you with my progress.

Thanks again,

Daniel

Hi,
I am from New York so it would be very difficult for me to access a lot of the British and French archives. My family is doing research on a French great-grandfather (Camille Francois Got) and his American wife (Agnes Philbin Got) who lived in Calcutta with their family. The father was apparently a hemp merchant. We managed to find St. Thomas church baptismal and a death records for two of their children through the India Office records. We were interested in finding out where their address was a

[Daniel]

Actually, just realized that I already uploaded those maps in previous posts.

Hi,
I am from New York so it would be very difficult for me to access a lot of the British and French archives. My family is doing research on a French great-grandfather (Camille Francois Got) and his American wife (Agnes Philbin Got) who lived in Calcutta with their family. The father was apparently a hemp merchant. We managed to find St. Thomas church baptismal and a death records for two of their children through the India Office records. We were interested in finding out where their address was a

[Noel Gunther GUN-1255]

Hi Daniel

I note that you are in contact with Beverly Hallam. If you pass on you photo to Beverly and ask her to pass it on to me I may be able to find out what the House is now. For your information No. 6 Wood Street was the Residence of Doctor Donald Sealy,he also practiced from there. Attached is a photo of No 6. The photo is dated

[Daniel]

Hi Noel,

Thanks so much for your help. Did your message get cut off? It seems like the sentence “The photo is dated…. ” was cut off. Also I don’t see an attached photo of No. 6.

You should be able to see the picture of the house at this link:

https://www.fibis.org/members/daniel-d/album/picture/339/

or if you look in my album. It is the house with the family in front of it.

If not, I can send it to Beverly.

Is that photo of the house what you meant or do you want to look at the street map?

Here is the link to the street map that I posted earlier. This map is dated from 1895, the same years my family was there.

https://www.fibis.org/members/daniel-d/album/picture/363/

Thanks again for your help.

Daniel

Hi,
I am from New York so it would be very difficult for me to access a lot of the British and French archives. My family is doing research on a French great-grandfather (Camille Francois Got) and his American wife (Agnes Philbin Got) who lived in Calcutta with their family. The father was apparently a hemp merchant. We managed to find St. Thomas church baptismal and a death records for two of their children through the India Office records. We were interested in finding out where their address was a

[Author]

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