Please help in finding records

[gilian rowland]

I emailed the National Army Museum here in London UK for you and gave the information you have posted. Their replies are below - hope this helps. Please refer to the National Archives web site. DOB is date of birth.
I note you haven't given approx time/dates etc so hope your information is enough.
Good luck! Jill

"On the information you have given it appears Bir served as an infantry soldier -sepoy- with the 91st Punjab Light infantry which was a predominately Sikh regiment in the British Indian Army up until Independence in 1947.

The National Army Museum does not hold service records, however they can be obtained online from the National Archive, Kew in their Indian Army Personnel archive.

The service record will tell you the period of his service, details of posting he had and any qualifications or trades he acquired during his service."

and

"The family will need the usual personal details - name, DOB, place of birth. The name is not particularly unusual so may take some perseverance to find the correct record. Without these details it will be impossible to trace the service record."

[Abhayjeet]

Thanks gilian rowland,
We dont have date of birth. We also dont know place of birth. As now a long time ago, we only have these medals and information written on medals. That time family didn’t know much and dont pay attention to these type of matters. One trunk also came of my gpa but it is lost now. I dont know how the medals suffer. That time the situation in india was not very good. Now what should i do ? Contact to indian national archives ?

[gilian rowland]

Thanks - the person who replied said " the National Archive, Kew in their Indian Army Personnel archive."

Sorry I should have said Kew is in London UK - please google their web site. Do you not have any idea of date of birth - was he your grandfather ie Father's Father - at least an idea of the years!

[Abhayjeet]

As i have a talk now with my father now he said date of place was Village Attawa, district Amabala, Punjab.
Bir singh father’s name was Gujjar Singh.
We dont know exact but my father tried to supply information.
We approximately can say that his date of birth can be between 1890-1895.
We are not sure of the above information supplied. But if you can contact with the national archives and see anything comes out please tell. I dont know how to contact

[gilian rowland]

Thanks for the information and for talking to your Father - that should help a lot. Yes I will try to help you further but as it is the weekend offices will be closed. Replies from the National Archives can take
at least ten days to two weeks so be patient!

[Abhayjeet]

You emailed them ? Okay sir i am very very thankful to you. If i found anything new related to the matter as i will ask my relatives who are 70….80 year old if they have any information. Sir i want to clear my doubt that, family told me that the Gpa trunk came to india. What type of things are in trunk ? And if i was having trunk suppose will it help ?

[Pam Downes]

As i have a talk now with my father now he said date of place was Village Attawa, district Amabala, Punjab.
Bir singh father’s name was Gujjar Singh.
We dont know exact but my father tried to supply information.
We approximately can say that his date of birth can be between 1890-1895.
We are not sure of the above information supplied. But if you can contact with the national archives and see anything comes out please tell. I dont know how to contact

I know absolutely nothing about birth registrations in India, and the internet isn't proving to be helpful either, so I would suggest that you contact your local registration office who should be able to tell you when registrations began, and how/where to apply for copies of birth certificates if they're available.
Ditto temples/churches for records for the equivalent of our baptisms.

[Pam Downes]

You emailed them ? Okay sir i am very very thankful to you. If i found anything new related to the matter as i will ask my relatives who are 70….80 year old if they have any information. Sir i want to clear my doubt that, family told me that the Gpa trunk came to india. What type of things are in trunk ? And if i was having trunk suppose will it help ?

The trunk could have contained anything or nothing, from personal papers, to clothing, to books, etc.
It's impossible to say.
If you had the trunk and it contained personal papers, then, yes, it would undoubtedly help.
If you had the trunk and it contained only clothing, then no, it wouldn't help.

[gilian rowland]

Further to my post No. 21. The National Army Museum referred me to the National Archives. They referred me to the British Library.

Your relative has been found and so has his Service No. 4404. They have given details of how to obtain his Records in India and a lot of information for him. However I need to check what I am allowed to put on here - see my message for a Moderator.

Shortly I will copy the information from the Museum and National Archives which should be of interest to you and possibly others.

MODERATOR Please kindly advise

1) The BL have obtained the information online from Archives from another online site which they obtained in their reading rooms. Am I able to just copy their email in view of that and if so am I able to disclose the source? I get confused with T & Cs.

2) I have never attached documents when posting and although have looked on here I can't find howto do so.

with thanksJill

[Abhayjeet]

Further to my post No. 21. The National Army Museum referred me to the National Archives. They referred me to the British Library.

Your relative has been found and so has his Service No. 4404. They have given details of how to obtain his Records in India and a lot of information for him. However I need to check what I am allowed to put on here - see my message for a Moderator.

Shortly I will copy the information from the Museum and National Archives which should be of interest to you and possibly others.

MODERATOR Please kindly advise

1) The BL have obtained the information online from Archives from another online site which they obtained in their reading rooms. Am I able to just copy their email in view of that and if so am I able to disclose the source? I get confused with T & Cs.

2) I have never attached documents when posting and although have looked on here I can't find howto do so.

with thanksJill

The records of My Grandpa are found ? Please tell me in detail i am not able to understand .