My Gt Grandfather was born in India. Over the years I have searched for some real evidence of who his parents were. He named his father on his marriage cert but I have been unable to track anything to make a connection. The extract below from James Skinners book offers me a possible explanation. Does anyone have any knowledge of any documents relating to these 'marriages' As the children of such unions seem to have been taken care of would there be any records relating to them. Would a mans service record with the HEIC contain details of such 'marriages' and the children born.
'My father was a native of Scotland, in the [East India] Company's service; my mother was a Rajpootree, the daughter of a zamindar . . . who was taken prisoner at the age of fourteen . . . My father then an ensign into whose hands she fell, treated her with great kindness, and she bore him six children, three girls and three boys. The former were all married to gentlemen in the Company's service; my elder brother, David, went to sea; I myself became a soldier, and my younger brother, Robert, followed my example.'
Lt Col James Skinner (1778-1841), quoted in Dennis Holman, Sikander Sahib: The Life of Colonel James Skinner, 1778-1841, London, 1961, pp.213-14.
