No birth registration

[grahamm684]

Hi, recently I discovered a new member of my tree to find  he was born in Bombay India. His name Alan Christopher Dowden. Born around 1912. His father Christopher Gilbert married a Dorothy Wise in 1912 in India  and there is also another sibling Cyril Reginald 1916 but there is a birth record for this on family search. The father seems to have divorced from Dorothy and remarried, and the two boys and his new wife returned to England by boat in 1928.
It seems strange no birth record for Alan, maybe somebody has an idea as to where to find it. Dorothy also remarried but later.
Cheers, Graham.

[PatLac]

He was born c. 1913 according to his death record.

https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/sources/PSYT-DYVt

No birth record so far.

Maybe there's some information here?

https://www.deceasedonline.com/servlet/GSDOSearch?DetsView=Summary&src=ext&fileid=7453682


And I think he might have been born in Bengal, not Bombay as stated by the newspapers, because his parents married in Bengal and his brother was born in Bengal (Middelton Row, Calcutta).


Have you checked this article?

Acting Flight Lieutenant Alan Christopher Dowden, R.A.F.V.R, No. 78 Squadron. This officer now on

... operational duty, has participated in numerous operational sorties. On all occasiong he has shown coolness and efficiency and exceptional fearlessness in the face of danger. A./Fit. Lt. Dowden was born in 1913 at Bombay, India, and was educated at St. Joseph's College Calcutta, India. He enlisted in RAFVR in 1940, was commissioned in 1942 and reached his present rank in 1943 ...

Published: Friday 15 October 1943
Newspaper: Bournemouth Times and Directory
County: Hampshire, England

[grahamm684]

Hello, yes i have seen these, Calcutta seems to be quite central to everything, they left India from Calcutta in1928, the two boys the father Christopher Gilbert, and it says Mrs Dowden. But he remarried a Mary Anne Webb 8 Dec 1923 and the original Mrs Dowden also remarried 1929. Makes me wander if Alan has a different mother or father maybe, fathers love child and then wed Dorothy?? Who he had a child with, or even Dorothys previous relationship??  Bit of a hunch maybe. Could be why no reg. as yet. What do you think? By the way thanks for your reply.

[PatLac]

Anything is possible! I have looked for Alan born in India 1913 +/- 2 years and nothing came up.

[Andy J2022]

To have left India to come to Britain, Alan would have needed a passport, which in turn would have required a birth certificate, or failing that an awful lot of paperwork establishing his entitlement to British citizenship. If you haven't already done so try the India Office records in the British Library. The BL is still not fully back online after the cyber attack 2 years ago, so if you can't visit St Pancras in person, it might be worth a phone call to see what records are available online.

[grahamm684]

Thanks for that, i have just messaged them with the details.

[Neale1961]

Related thread where a search for Alan Dowden's birth in India was unsuccessful.
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=891888.msg7659308#google_vignette

[grahamm684]

Yes, that was on my post a week ago when I couldn't find Alan at all, but I am now just persevering with the missing birth as I feel that there should be something somewhere, and as I haven't any experiance searching in India I thought it might be worth putting the request in a different area of the forum where maybe more experiance in that area might exist.
Any help is always appreciated.
Cheers.

[PatLac]

Have you bought his death certificate? It might have his exact date of birth.