INTRODUCTION
TO THE DEEFHOLTS WEBSITE
Most of the data
available on this site was researched about 10 years ago shortly after the
death of Esmond Deefholts. Amongst his papers was a family tree which he had
never shown his children, except in a closely edited form. It had been drawn up
by an uncle of his in
The research
was facilitated by access to the India Office library, where a lot of time was
spent trawling the Ecclesiastical Records (registers of Births, Marriages and
Burials); Annual Directories of Residents in Bengal and Calcutta; copies of the
India List; records of wills; manuscript copies of despatches etc. The other
advantage was the distinctiveness of the family name. Most of the discoveries
are transcribed under various headings on this site.
At the same
time, the documentary research was complemented by recollections of family
anecdotes and lore recounted by Esmond, supplemented by more recent
recollections from his mother, siblings and cousins. A telephone trawl led to
conversations with several cousins many times removed and correspondence with
others in
The “family
history” was primarily a means of cross-referencing the mountain of meaningless
details and trivia which had emerged from so many disparate sources. Most of
the family connections are documented, but there is also a reasonable element
of speculation. It has since been overlaid with some extracts from the
background reading embarked upon in an attempt to understand the historical
context in which these individuals lived. It is proposed to make the document
more user friendly as this site evolves. The same goes for the site itself.
The transcripts
of data and the history combined should enable any Deefholts who knows the name
and approximate date of birth of his or her grandfather (or possibly, nowadays,
great-grandfather) to identify a direct line to Frederick Deefholts, who lived
in Chinsura in the early 1800s - at least, any Deefholts encountered so far.
Researching the maternal lines is more difficult, given the paucity of information
regarding female residents in the local directories.
Various
lines of enquiry remain unexplored. There is doubtless more to unearth from the
sources used in the India Office Library (in particular, through a more
systematic scan of the Directories) and it would be fascinating to explore new
sources closer to where the action took place.
Contributions are welcome. Please send any
correspondence to:
kpmsmd@hotmail.com
January 2002