Baptisms, Marriages and Burials

LDS Familysearch

LDS Familysearch provides the great majority of transcribed records from Burma.  These records are presently mixed, along with those for Bangladesh, Malaysia, Singapore, and a portion of the Punjab now in Pakistan, into a messy bundle in the "Asia and Middle East Collection".  Recent discussions with the LDS have resulted in a move to separate these records, but the timescale for completion is unknown.

Even as things stand, we find their site to be outstanding for the powerful search facilities.  Using the following search techniques will provide some unexpected results, such as US border crossings, and people born in Burma who are listed in the UK 1911 census, but we think that is a bonus rather than something to complain about.

For global searches for people born in Burma, go to the main LDS search page and enter the word "Burma" into the Place box as shown here then press the "Search" button.  You will see some results that do not seem to make sense - ignore these.  On the left hand side of the results page, you will see a list of "Filters" which you can use to get more specific results.  The best filters are those which are geographical, i.e. "Birthplace", "Place of Marriage" etc.  You can add or subtract the filters as you desire.  You will find this a very useful addition to the usual tools for finding lost family members.

For searches of the Parish Registers, go to the Asia and Middle East collections and select the type of record you are looking for (Baptism, Marriage or Burial.)  Fill in the boxes for the name you are looking for.  It is possible to restrict the search to a specific town, for example Moulmein, by typing the name of the town into the "Place" box.  This works for the majority of towns in Burma.  For Rangoon or Mandalay, it is neccessary to type in "Rangoon, Bengal, India" or "Mandalay, Bengal, India."as the place name.   If you don't get the results you are looking for, you may have to be a bit more creative.

Pros

This is by far the largest one-stop-shop for BMDs in Burma. 

The search tools are powerful and flexible. 

Fuzzy search techniques make finding a person relatively easy, even if your spelling is a little off.

Search results are clear.

Cons

At present Burma is jumbled with half the eastern hemisphere into "Bengal"

The collections are regrettably incomplete.

Baptisms seem to be at least 100 years old, except in a few cases.

Marriages seem to be at least 75 years old.

These apparent restrictions are in place, even though the LDS have informed us that there is no reason for them being there "as India has no Privacy Laws"

India Office Family History Search

A pretty good finding aid.  It is possible to combine names and places or occupations to reduce false results.  It is also possible to enter place names or occupations only and all those entries relating to that place or occupation will come up as results, which can be useful when you are not sure of the individual's name. 

Pros

Search flexibility

Clear identification of the source material

Cons
Very limited database

Spelling must be exact

Families in British India Society

The FIBIS collection of BMD's contains collections of records which do not appear elsewhere, e.g.  Registry Office records.   The search engine is not as powerful as that of either of the above sites and there are no facilities for advanced searching, so all Burma records are listed under "Bengal."   Their collections of other records, for example the "Domestic Occurrences" extracted from the East India Register and some newspapers, go some way towards making amends for this and the Bengal collection of BMD's far surpasses that which can be found online at the British Library site.

Pros

Sets of transcribed records not found elsewhere online.

Cons
Lack of clarity in the search results
High level of false results.
Impossible to identify Burma records as such.

Parish Records in Burma

As can be seen on our Projects page, a number of parish records have survived.  We have indexed some of these records and the results will be made available in our Members Area.  We provide transcriptions where permitted by our cut-off dates and we provide up-to-date contact details.  Many of these records do not appear in the registers of the India Office, or else provide different information. 

In addition to these records, we also have a complete photographic archive of the surviving tombstones which were gathered from the Christian cemeteries in Rangoon and relocated to the new Christian Cemetery near Mingaladon.  These, together with photographs from other cemeteries which are far from the beaten tourist track, will be found exclusively in our Members' Area.

Pros

Positive identification of parish records which have survived and who to contact for a copy.  Indexed records from the 1880's to the present day.

Cons
The indexes are only available to subscribing members, and will not be published beyond the cut-off dates as follows:-

Cut-off dates are:-
Baptisms - 75 years
Marriages - 50 years
Burials - no cut-off date

No Anglican and very few Baptist records have been found from before 1948 (but we keep on searching.)