We often visit my mother and look at the family photographs hanging on the wall of her sitting room. We look – but do we really see? There is one family group, taken approx. 1900, which shows my grandfather as a tiny boy with his siblings, his parents and his maternal grandparents – the women and children are enchanting, his father is handsome but the older man fades into the background. Let’s bring him into the light.
The baptism of John Shreeve is amongst the copy church registers which form part of India Office Records of the British Library, London (digitised on findmypast.co.uk). He was born in Visagapatam, southern India in 1840. His father was a country sea captain trading in local waters but sadly both parents died young leaving John and his brother orphaned at only four and six years old.
No records exist to explain whether John was taken in by relatives or placed in the orphan asylum. In fact, the next relating India Office record is dated 1875 showing the baptism of a son in Calcutta and revealing that, at this point, John was a telegram signaller and had a wife named Sarah. Two later baptisms of children indicate that he returned to Visagatapam area as a pensioned signaller and a burial record reveals that it is there he died in 1907.
India Office records at the British Library are only 70% complete – some have not survived and others remain out in India. Thankfully, the wonderful volunteers at FIBIS are transcribing various resources to help fill that gap and this extra information is free to search on the society’s website. I’m so grateful that a dataset derived from the Times of India closed the gap in my own brick wall and revealed that John was married to Sarah Sophia Farley in 1866 in Bimlipitam (near Visagapatam) and was already employed at that time in Government Telegraph Department.
I have already mentioned the discovery of a son born in 1875 Calcutta, Bengal – which is a far from John’s usual home area – so I consulted the annual Thackers directories to find out more about that period in his life. These directories cover a period from 1863 up to the 1950s and are readily available on the open shelves of the British library. Earlier years cover Bengal area only but later the two other presidencies are included. They are huge volumes containing commercial information with details of the main players and they also contain lists of European residents. From these I learned that John worked at the signal house in Calcutta only for the years 1874-1875. I also discovered the name of the street in which he lived during this time. I later found an image of the Calcutta Telegraph Office in my vintage postcard collection.
I also ordered up the volumes of the civil lists series V13 in the British library which related to Telegraphs. These would the name of the man, his occupation, when he joined, when he achieved present grade and salary. Working through these I discovered John had joined the Telegraphs as a signaller in 1863 (so aged about 22 years,) and he remained there until he retired in 1881. Apart from the two years in Calcutta he was based at Ganjam in Visagapatam area.
So seemingly a good steady working man! But what was a signaller? In the days before the invention of telephone, messages were sent down an electric wire by machines which gave out impulses or signals. A signaller would operate these machines and send and receive the messages. These were deciphered at the receiving end by reading marks left on a page. In fact, as early as 1836 a Mr Morse invented a code for sending and deciphering these marks. (Sounding a bit familiar?)
From what I can gather telegraphs were in their peak period around the time when John joined because the 1850s had seen the advent of the railway which gave rise to demand for information along the route. In fact telegraphs had also played a big role in the relay of information during the great India Uprising of 1857. It must have been exciting time for John being employed in this fairly new field.
So our family photograph depicts the participant of a bygone occupation – a forerunner to our world of digital communication.
Further Reading:-
- FIBIS fact File 2 – Getting started with the India office Records
- FIbiwiki Article on India related Posts and Telegraphs information for family historians
- FIBIS Fact File 3 – Indian Directories (This includes information about Thackers and other available directories useful for the family historian )
shaking the monkey tree 