Soldiers in Colonial India

[liverpoolgenealogy]

Hi,

My ancestor Martin McHugh (spelt several ways, McKew, McCue, etc.) was in the British Army from 1825-1845, and spent most of his time in India, but also fought in Afghanistan 1838-42. I have several, rather inexplicable, matches on Ancestry with people of mixed Indian-UK/Ireland heritage and am wondering if Martin McHugh played any role in this.

Martin signed up at Castlebar, County Mayo in 1825, his service records state he was mostly in India, and also Afghanistan, but was in a military hospital in Kent by late 1845, and declared unfit for service. He had returned to Castlebar by January 1846 when he married a local girl. I am a descendent of this marriage.

I have notes from a website, though I have misplaced the link, that states his regiment (13th Foot) was stationed in Dinapore from 1827–1831, then Agra from 1831–1835 and Kurnaul from 1836–1838.

Does anyone know if this is a plausible theory and if there would be any records? There is nothing written in his army records, but the notes I made from that website state that there were Christian chapels built in Agra, would they keep records of marriages and births? If so, could anyone access them? I wouldn't even know where to look for these.

If Martin got married in 1846 in Ireland, that presumably means that either my theory is wrong, or that his wife died in India, or he did not marry at all, and had a child out of wedlock. Worse still, it may not have been consensual, given the authority the army had, I know that is a possibility. His Irish marriage record is just a parish record, as they were Catholic, so no registration. It makes no note of his marital status at the time, nor does it note anyone else's.

His conduct was reportedly 'good' so that may disprove my theory if he had children out of wedlock, though I'm not sure if that would be taken into consideration when rating the conduct of a soldier.

If anyone can provide any help, on anything at all I mentioned, or even their opinion on my theory, I would be very grateful. Many thanks. 

[Andy J2022]

To be frank, if the only source of this issue is other people's trees on Ancestry, I wouldn't spend much time on it unless they have credible sources to support their trees.

My starting point is the FamilySeearch wiki which is always helpful in identifying primary sources: https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/India_Online_Genealogy_Records
None of the sources they suggest come up with a marriage for Martin McHugh/McKew/McCue in the period 1825-45. This of course is not conclusive, but I suggest it is persuasive that you may be on a wild goose chase.

FIBIS does not come up with any leads.

If Martin McHugh's service record does not record his marriage, then if it happened, his wife would not have been 'on the Regiment'. That is to say she would not have been officially acknowledged in any way. The Army would not have provided rations, housing or transport (within India or back to the UK) for her. Martin would have had to pay for her accommodation etc from his pay as single soldier. That is not to say that plenty of soldiers didn't have mistresses who were not on the regiment. Life was boring in India in the 1830s

I did note two marriages, the first of a John McHugh at George Town in Madras on 1 June 1887 (see image below) and the second for a Patrick McHugh at Akyab Bengal on 11 May 1884, in which the father of the groom was stated to be a Martin McHugh. In both cases the sons were born after 1845. However this in no way suggests that the father(s) had previously married in India.

[Andy J2022]

His conduct was reportedly 'good' so that may disprove my theory if he had children out of wedlock, though I'm not sure if that would be taken into consideration when rating the conduct of a soldier.

You are right that a marriage outside the Regiment would not have affected his character rating. However, what his record actually says is 'tolerably good'. This is actually three notches down from being a perfect soldier and suggests that he had a couple entries on the Regimental defaulters' book. If he had had no entries, the rating would have Exemplary. The next level down would have been an unqualified Good.

[liverpoolgenealogy]

Thank you for your assistance. 

This idea was based on my Ancestry DNA matches, with relatively close (i.e. less than 5th-8th cousins) matches with several people who's estimates were of mostly Indian and UK/Ireland ethnicities. Though I know this type of DNA isn't an exact science, so not 100% reliable, I still thought it was worth asking. Their trees didn't provide much insight. This was the most obvious link I would have to an Indian relative, but especially as they would be a 'half cousin' I think the timeframe that this could've occurred may be much wider.

Thank you for checking the records. It looks like if this link does come via Martin, it was probably between him and a mistress.

I really appreciate your assistance. 

[Andy J2022]

Hi LG,

Yes DNA ethnicity matches are obviously (slightly?) more reliable than Ancestry trees, so that makes it more worthwhile to track down the possible source. I would be unsurprised to find that many soldiers fathered children with Indian women during the roughly three and a half centuries that the British and HEIC armies were in India. 

Andy

[liverpoolgenealogy]

I would be unsurprised to find that many soldiers fathered children with Indian women during the roughly three and a half centuries that the British and HEIC armies were in India.

This was certainly my thinking, like you say "Life was boring in India in the 1830s."

 

[SMJ]

Would be very interesting to see how you get on.

Like you, my ethnicity estimate from Ancestry comes up with an 8% share with Bengal and matches with an Asian surname of around 300cM/5% shared DNA.

I have no paper evidence that shows someone serving in India but there are close connections with Shropshire (my paternal base) and India back to the days of Clive of India, so it is highly likely that local Ag Labs were persuaded to serve there as part of the Army for the entire period of the Raj. My problem is that searching for a unique Jones, Davies or Williams from Shropshire is near to impossible.

All the best