Mary-Anne Gourley, FIBIS representative in Australia
Furthering your British Indian research using Australian resources. – Mary-Anne’s talk will cover the range of resources available in Australia which will assist those seeking to research their British Indian connections.
BIOGRAPHY
Mary-Anne’s interest in her family history has been ongoing following her son’s request for help with a school project in 1993. Later an Indian connection surfaced after the discovery of her Scottish ancestor Paterson Saunders short stay in Melbourne in 1853 and the birth of a son during that time. The son’s Victorian birth certificate included information on his parent’s marriage in Calcutta and the names of three siblings (one dead) all born in India.
Paterson’s hope – a successful business venture selling imported Indian products, were dashed. Speculators from around the world had arrived in the colony with an assortment of goods. Oversupply and a failing economy resulted in countless traders including, Paterson, being bankrupted. The visit to Melbourne ended in 1854 with his family returning to India. Paterson left the following year having secured a large bank loan.
Following his return, Paterson wrote a series of articles warning the uniformed of doing business in Victoria. These appeared in Calcutta’s Englishman Newspaper. and in 1863 Paterson published them in book form. It was this book (a rare copy held by the Mitchell Library in Sydney) which gave Mary-Anne inspiration to research and write the biography of her ancestor published in 2010. (A copy is now held in the British Library).
Mary-Anne has extended her research and found an array of ancestors in India, some joined the EICA, were merchants, indigo planters, engineers, journalists and a dubious mariner. Mary-Anne was intrigued by the travelling undertaken by this extended family and she subsequently expanded her areas of research from the UK and Ireland and Australia to France, Italy, South America, Southern Africa and New Zealand.
Mary-Anne has been a member of and volunteer at the Genealogical Society of Victoria since 2002. She is the co-convenor of their British India Discussion Circle. Mary-Anne also volunteered at the LDS Family History Centre, Blackburn until its closure in 2012, she joined FIBIS in 2006.
In 2014 Mary-Anne completed a post-graduate certificate in Local and Family History at the University of Dundee.
A major part of Mary-Anne’s Indian research has been undertaken in Australia using the facilities provided by archives both national and state, libraries, and resources available at family history societies and websites. Mary-Anne accessed the British Library’s India Office Records via Familysearch. The FIBIS website with its continuing addition of pertinent information taken from various sources has been of immense help. International archives and websites provided access to material in several countries. Research trips to London, Edinburgh and Dundee have also extended her knowledge.
