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13th NI (in India)

13th NI (in India)

Posted: 29 May 2015 11:08AM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 29 May 2015 12:21PM GMT
Surnames: Whiley
Hello
I have found my ancestor, James Whiley, and on a birth announcement for his son in India, he is listed as being 13th NI. What military group is this? Any pointers much appreciated.
Thanks
Laura

Re: 13th NI (in India)

Posted: 29 May 2015 3:42PM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 29 May 2015 8:20PM GMT
Dates?

Re: 13th NI (in India)

Posted: 29 May 2015 6:14PM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 29 May 2015 7:26PM GMT
The transcript comes from East India Register 1843.

Its to announce John Whiley's son, and it states 'At Banda, the wife of J. Whiley, 13th N.I., of a son.'

Re: 13th NI (in India)

Posted: 29 May 2015 8:08PM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 29 May 2015 8:31PM GMT
Yes date,...and...location. India was and is a big country, well a sub continent really, and before the 1857 mutiny, the parts under British control were divided into several different administrative areas which were under the control of the HEIC = The Honourable East India Company.

The various administrative areas were called Presidencies,...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidencies_and_provinces_of_B...
and the HEIC also had it's own army, some units of which were manned by British soldiers, and some of which were manned by Indians and supervised by British personnel.

The HEIC Army organisation was also organised and administered via the Presidency areas in which the various units were raised and based. ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_armies

http://wiki.fibis.org/index.php/East_India_Company_Army

For example, the HEIC's Bengal Army in the Bengal Presidency...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_Native_Infantry

So to be absolutely certain of exactly which particular unit he was serving in at that time, you also need a location.

13th N.I. = 13th Native Infantry = 13th Regiment of Native Infantry...i.e.one of the units which were mostly manned by Indian soldiers.

You've got another recent message post which refers to ancestors in Calcutta, well that was in the Bengal Presidency, so if that is the same family which is being referred to in this message thread, then he was probably serving in the 13th Bengal Native Infantry Regiment.
http://wiki.fibis.org/index.php/13th_Regiment_of_Bengal_Nati...

Re: 13th NI (in India)

Posted: 29 May 2015 8:29PM GMT
Classification: Military
Surnames: Whiley
Wow, thank you for that information!
Both my ancestors were in the Lower Orphan School in Calcutta, and when they married he was described as a Fifer. But I can not find any information about his career in the military. Could this be because he could be an Indian Soldier?

Re: 13th NI (in India)

Posted: 29 May 2015 8:45PM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 29 May 2015 9:25PM GMT
Surnames: Whiley
You're welcome. Quick reply there,...I forgot to mention this...

This might possibly be of some use to you...
http://wiki.fibis.org/index.php/Bengal_Army

Fifer ?, a Fifer is a musician who plays the fife ( flute ) in a marching band, a prety standard traditional instrument in military bands,...double check that word in case it might have been poorly legible and might have actually said Piper, bagpipes are still played in the Indian Army, of course it's not of any great significance though.

An Indian ?,...with a surname like Whiley, I doubt it, and presumably your marriage and birth records were British records and it's not hugely likely that an Indian of that time period would have had British nationality, and if the wedding was a Christian one, not very likely that an Indian of that time period would have been a Christian.

Military records of that era and location can be sparse and difficult to find, even if they exist, which many don't.

You aren't a huge fan of mentioning dates or ages, are you. ? :):)

Orphans ?, well that suggests that he and his wife died whilst their offspring were children, and there should be a record of his death, and likely so if he was serving in the HEIC Army in India when he died, that might have some additional info.

Re: 13th NI (in India)

Posted: 29 May 2015 9:37PM GMT
Classification: Query
However, as I suspected, the school, despite it's name, wasn't solely for orphans, and there's quite a bit of material available about it, don't know if any of it includes records per se, such as admission records and so on, but the first link below gives a lot of the background, and it also addresses your issue of the potential ethnicity of the parents.
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/INDIA/2009-01/...

http://wiki.fibis.org/index.php/Orphans ... http://tinyurl.com/nctmsgs

Re: 13th NI (in India)

Posted: 31 May 2015 9:18PM GMT
Classification: Military
Yes, I'm pretty sure it says Fifer.
Family lore says that an ancestor was Indian, but I agree, Whiley is an unusual name for an Indian person to have had in the 19th Century.

The marriage record is in English, from the orphanage, in India.

And, sorry, don't want to inundate people with information. The marriage certificate is in 1830. His birth is listed as 1812, hers as 1815. But I can not find any birth details for either of them.

Jane dies in the Cawnpore massacre, in 1857. John, lives through that, but dies a year later in 1858 in Bengal.

They have several children, including my 2nd great grandmother, Mary Whiley. She met my 2nd great grandfather in the Lawrence Military Asylum where he was an officer of some sort.

Thanks for all the links :-)
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