This is a miscellaneous set of cards covering roughly the period 1780-1857, compiled by Lt. Col. (H) Kendall Percy-Smith FSG (1897-1975), Major Vernon Charles Padget Hodson FSG (1883-1963) and others.

H Kendal Percy-Smith was a career soldier who was posted to India in 1919. His abiding interest in the Honourable East India Company and its employees dates from this period. However, Neville Taylor in his book "Anglo-Indian sources in the Library of the Society of Genealogists" implies that it was not until 1933 that KP-S began to compile his card index of births, marriages and deaths of British people in India. The Genealogists' Magazine for March 1949 reports that he was preparing an index to marriages registered in the India Office Records from 1698-1900, covering Bengal, Madras, Bombay, Burma, St Helena, Singapore, Penang, Bencoolen and Macao. These were presumably added to the already existing index. It is likely that another index compiled by H E Stapleton of Europeans in Dacca, Bengal was also amalgamated with it.

The index consists of 4 main types of card:

1) Large printed cards bearing data on military officers
2) Large red cards bearing data on military medical staff
3) Large cards mainly relating to Civil Servants
4) Small paper slips (mostly births, marriages and deaths) culled from a variety of sources.

Neville Taylor gives a useful list of the sources used that can be found in the Society's Library, whilst other sources will be found at the India Office Library.

Although the main period of coverage for the index is 1780-1857, references can be found to dates outside these years.

In addition to the India Index, a number of typescript volumes compiled by Percy-Smith can be found on the India shelves in the Upper Library.