India: Help please with Baker 1880's West Bengal

[chris2705]

The Holy Grail though is going to be finding a record of WHB's marriage to Helena which I could not find in the records for Bengal, Madras, Bombay, Ecclesiastical returns, or registrar records.

I am beginning to suspect that something fishy might have gone on, as Helena's first child was born in January 1881 and Helena was born in the first quarter 1864.  Doing some simple maths shows that she would only have been a few weeks past her 16th birthday when..........

I suppose she could have married under-age, married as soon as she was 16, or married very quickly after getting a bit of a shock!

[hepburn]

Oooooh the dirty dog
                                       So perhaps they didn't marry.
It looks like William never set foot in England.
Where do go from here?
We've trawled the Passenger list.

[hepburn]

No other baptisms in Bombay for William and Sarah,but they must have had other children, we need to find them.

[hepburn]

1851 census Tipton.
William head age 25  born Tipton Engineer
Sarah wife age 23     
John son age 2
Cornelius son age 7 mths........HO107/2029/680/page 65.Can't see them in the '61,so in India,unless Ive missed them,if not it looks like the right family...

[chris2705]

Oooooh the dirty dog
                                       So perhaps they didn't marry.
It looks like William never set foot in England.
Where do go from here?
We've trawled the Passenger list.

I reckon that they must have married at some point otherwise she and the children would have had a nightmare getting passports, baptized, into schools, pensions, inheritance etc. Perhaps we should give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they must have just been very keen (and quick!)

[hepburn]

Baker is such a common name,you've seen how many there are in India.....they must have gone back and forth quite a bit...Why can't we find a marriage .....

[chris2705]

Apparently only a small percentage of the India Office records are online, so I think that the answers are going to be found you know where.

How about Helena's daughter in law? She was born in Fenton and was one of 11 siblings, I reckon that could throw up a few new relatives....

[hepburn]

He he...... luvvly jubbly.
By the way who's he on the left?

[chris2705]

Well I was getting fed up with Helena (I know how the deer feels now).

He is a g,g,grandfather called Stephen Laming. He was a Trinity Pilot from Dover who would guide ships through the Goodwin Sands. Thankfully he is on one of the easier lines as they all were from the same area and link with a couple of other people's trees on Ancestry. I have got his line back to 1726 (not that I can take the credit)