Graveyard Tourism in India

Tourism authorities in the Himalayan Indian state of Himachal Pradesh are inviting British tourists to visit to the state's many European graveyards is an added 'bonus' on their itinerary.

According to official estimates, there are some 10 main 'European' graveyards in the state, which mainly house the remains of British people who died in India. The London-based British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia (Bacsa), however, estimates the state has a total of 42 such cemeteries. Many of them are open to the public, although new burials no longer take place there.

Rosie Llewellyn-Jones of Bacsa says the rising interest among British tourists in travelling to graveyards of ancestors is due to "often an inbuilt love of cemeteries among the British people" and a "huge boom" in genealogy and research into one's ancestors.

"A large number of British people had relatives who served in India, not just as officials, but as soldiers, shopkeepers, traders, tea planters, forest officials, teachers, missionaries, photographers," she says.

"Tourists and researchers are going to India to find and photograph the graves of their ancestors, and also to see the places where their ancestors lived and worked, so there is a spin-off effect.

You can read more about this story on the BBC's web site at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6209517.stm

Comments

[REVEREND JULIAN WEST]

I AM LOOKING FOR A PATRICK MASON AND ELIZA MASON HIS WIFE WHO WENT TO INDIA FROM AROUND 1820 TO 1870 AND AT THAT TIME THEY HAD TWO CHILDREN CALLED ELIZABETH AND FRANK MASON AND ELIZABETH MASON AND FRANK MASON WAS PUT INTO THE BANGLO ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOOL, THERE MOTHER AND FATHER RETUND TO ENGLAND OR THE USA BY SHIP AND THERE WAS BOTH LOST AT SEA AND NEVER SEEN AGAIN AND WE UNDERSTAND THAT THEY FRANK MASON AND ELIZABETH MASON LEFT THE SCHOOL (BANGLO ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOOL )AND LATER IN LIFE ELIZABETH VERONICA MASON GOT MARRIED TO JOSEPH EDMUND D'COSTA AROUND 1885 AND THEY ALSO HAD TWO CHILDREN CALLED JOHN D'COSTA AND HERBERT PETER D'COSTA.LATER HERBERT PETER D'COSTA HAD IS NAME CHANGE TO HIS MOTHER'S MADEN NAME (MASON)SO FROM THAT TIME ON HERBERT PETER D'COSTA WAS KNOWN AS (HERBERT PETER MASON)WE CANNOT SAY WHAT HAPPEN TO FRANK D'COSTA, WE UNDERSTAND HE WENT INTO ARMY,JOSEPH EDMUND D'COSTA WAS THE SON OF PETER AND PAULINE D'COSTA AND JOSEPH EDMUND D'COSTA AND ELIZABETH VERONICA MASON WAS MARRIED AT SANTA CRUZ CATHEDRAL FORT COCHIN COCHIN-682 001.EXTRACT FROM MARRIAGE REGISTER 134/1909.(28thAPRIL1909)
HERBERT PETER MASON JOIN THE AUXILARY FORCE INDIA ON 29th MAY 1940 AND HE WAS BORN 5th OCT 1916 AND HE WAS DISCHARGE ON 15th AUGUST 1947. AND HERBERT PETER MASON WAS MARRIED TO THERESA ANTOINATTE MASON IS STILL LIVING IN DARWIN AUSTRILA, AND SHE AS AS IF SHE CAN GET A ARMY PENSION WITH BEEN IN THE ARMY FOR 7 YEAR, WHEN HE WAS IN THE ARMY HE STOP AT MADRAS ARMY NUMBER WAS 1017.RANK L/CORPORAL (ANGLO INDIAN.

I WOULD LIKE YOU TO FIND ANYTHING ON HIS GRANDFATHER PATRICK MASON AND HIS WIFE ELIZA MASON AND WERE THERE CAME FROM, ENGLAND/USA. AS I CANNOT FIND THAM AT ALL.DO GET BACK TO ME.

THIS IS MY WIFE'S SIDE I TRYING TO FIND.

REVEREND JULIAN WEST ENGLAND.