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Glasses would be a good idea next time - I'd be virtually blind without mine! The Directories are on open shelves. The staff will help with Army records. Good Luck!

Thank you Ann - I visited the BL IOR last week in search of his marriage without success hence this thread. I shall have to try there again for army records and directories. I have no experience with these though but I'm sure the staff will help. As a novice, last week was the first time I used microfilm!!
I agree the India Office records were easy to search - just not so easy to read, as like a fool, I forgot to take my glasses!

I would have thought that all names would appear on the IGI, but it's always advisable, of course, to check the original. I'm sure it did give his regiment, although I didn't look as I wasn't sure that it was the right man. It definitely wouldn't give his age, though. I'd have thought the India Office would be your best bet. Hopefully they might have Indian Army records or he may be listed in Directories if he wasn't in the Army. The Army List of course only lists Officers, so he may have been another rank, but if he was in the British Army you'd need to know his regiment for this period. Worth searching for their deaths in India too, and any will. I find the India Office is brilliant and relatively easy to search for BMD's.

Thank you very much for taking the trouble to look in the records at Kew - you are most kind.

Thomas Henry Bowman Barron is a possibility but the obvious difference in the extra "r" together with an unfamiliar middle name of Bowman makes it less probable. However one of his sons was Thomas Henry, but I think the Henry came from his father's twin brother who died in infancy. Still, you never know.
Working with this theory though I am unaware of my Thomas Baron having any middle names Born 1837 in Chorlton on Medlock parents Thomas and Hannah, IGI shows Thomas only.
Do you know if the IGI films contain further info to that available on familysearch? Perhaps a middle name that doesn't appear on an internet search?

I don't suppose the records you found show anything other than date of commission e.g age or regiment.

I believe my Thomas Baron went to India as a Medical Officer which would tend to suggest he joined the army here and might have been posted there with his regiment??? All guesswork I know!

you know, people on this site are just great!!!!

Richard

I was at Kew today, so looked in the index to officers records and he wasn't there. Also not in the Army List 1859/60 of 1857/8. In the Indian Army List there was a Thomas Henry Bowman Barron, Lieutenant in Bombay, Date of Commission 11/11/58. Don't know whether this is the same man?

Evie I can't be sure they stayed in India - I haven't found any burials there.

I've managed to track down most of the issue of Thomas and Elizabeth to here in the UK or Australia. Some are missing though. Many of T&E's children although born in India travelled to the UK on a number of occasions but from around 1895 to 1930s - I've managed to trace them on ships lists.

I'm sure this is becoming an unhealthy obsession!

"remember Elizabeth has a married name of Baron" - ?

Ah ... I had hit on a Thomas and Elizabeth Baron who weren't them, I believe. Oops. They stayed in India?

I've outlived my usefulness at this point I think!

Opportunity I guess took people to India - not quite the gold rush but people were certainly very mobile in the 19th century.

I don't see the Barons in the 1901 census. Son married in India in 1890 -- might they have returned as well?

I have a marriage into the Lovett Cameron family -- Scottish Camerons -- in my tree, a branch of which ("mine") had a generation all born in India in the 1840s-50s. My particular individual returned to India with his bride in the early 1890s (and became chief of works in Bombay), after a couple of decades in England. Their kids all got sent home to Sussex to school for the 1901 census, luckily for me.

So many things are possible. Elizabeth's mother may have been Irish, her father not. One might think it's the surname that's Irish though, lol.

What would we do without a good mystery in our tree?!

Evie - remember Elizabeth has a married name of Baron

Ann - yes 70% whoppeee!! to be fair I have managed to track down quite a lot already e.g. my mother's mother (my maternal grandmother) died when my mother was only 6 and ties to that side of the family were lost. My mother never knew the names of her maternal grandparents even though we had photos of them (they were just called Mum & Dad). I've managed to find them up at the British Library, so I cannot complain at all, well not much anyway!

just wondering what took all these Brits to India - it was full of them in the 1800's

I agree with your boarding school theory - many of my ancestors were at boarding school albeit the ones I know of were at school in the hills in India, not England, but your theory is well worth pursuing.

I just realized that Elizabeth shows in the UK censuses as being 2+ years older than Thomas, so that birth itself in India, to Dr. Keen, could indeed be her.

be positive - 70% is a fair chunk

Evie, my Elizabeth born in India had Irish parents according to family history, so census info on English residence is less likely but having said that still possible through marriage to someone with English ancestors.

I guess my best bet is to trawl through the BL records for Elizabeth's birth but without her marriage I cannot be sure.

I have a photo of Elizabeth Baron nee Keen who looks to be aged in her 70's which would put the photo date at c1900 but I was unable to find any death records for her or for that matter Thomas Baron born 1837. I have his birth and parents etc.

It really is so frustrating not being able to find someone!! The staff at the British Library said that around 70% still exists - just my luck!

Hmm. FIBIS gives, from its 1881 UK census individuals born in India list:

Surname KEENE
First Name Frederick
Year Born 1864
Place Born India
Census Area Surrey

He's a pupil at a boarding school, common for children of Anglo-Indian families. Ah, a James Keen c1872, India, is also at a boarding school in Surrey.

One might suspect a relationship to Frederick and/or Thomas above.

Also:

Name: Matilda Keen
Age: 10
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1871
Relation: Patient
Where born: Bangalore, India
Civil Parish: St George
County/Island: London
Street address: "St Georges Union Infirmary" Fulham Road


This one in 1881 can't be the boys' father in 1881, because he has a son Frederick already, born c1873 in India:

Name: Frederick T. Keen
Age: 46
>> Estimated Birth Year: abt 1835
Relation: Head
Spouse's Name: Margt.H.D.
Gender: Male
Where born: Godalming, Surrey, England
Civil Parish: Betchworth
County/Island: Surrey
>> Occupation: Lt Col C B Indian Army


1891 in Plymouth:

Name: Frederick Keen
Age: 22
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1869
Relation: Son
Mother's Name: Louisa - born Devon 1837
Gender: Male
Where born: Hyzerabad, India


I would be quite interested in investigating these various people, if I were you!

Thanks Ann for the info on the army lists etc - have had a quick browse but nothing so far :-(

Looking for Keen in 1881 who is a physician/surgeon (1881 searchable by occupation)

Name: Frederick Keen
Age: 50
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1831
Relation: Head
Spouse's Name: Elizabeth
Gender: Male
Where born: Bristol, Gloucestershire, England

Contemporary of the clergyman, born Gloucestershire, "Physician Surgeon & Apothecary LRC PL"; no kids in household, wife born Norfolk.


Not spotting either Thomas or Frederick readily in early censuses. Could have been in India? Frederick Keene and wife Eliza are in Suffolk in 1861 it seems.

Just possibilities and theories!