Three publications are available relating to Holy Trinity Church Nuwara Eliya:
The first is Holy Trinity Church Nuwara Eliya CD, a collection of about 1500 births and 814 marriages transcribed from a typed copy of the original records. Holy Trinity Church was the most important church in the tea country during the British period mid 1800s to mid 1900s. The CD can be purchased here.
The second is a printed publication, Graveyards in Ceylon: Nuwara Eliya Vol II. This comprises a collection of memorials (about 900 names) in the Holy Trinity Church and the old graveyards of Nuwara Eliya from surveys, written records and biographical details is recorded in this publication, the first since 1913. Several tombstones have been found from the early 20th century survey but many others not previously recorded were found in this later survey of 2008-9.
The third is Protestant Marriages Nuwara Eliya Ceylon, a register of marriages (about 1000 names) in Holy Trinity Church, Nuwara Eliya, include people of all races. Tamils mainly from the tea estates or the labouring classes who had converted to Christianity from Hinduism, the Burghers who were mainly descended from the Dutch, the Cingalese some with Portuguese names and the British who were so short of female company that they often married local girls. Others took their pick from the ladies who ostensibly came to Ceylon for a holiday but secretly they were looking for a husband and known as the ‘fishing fleet’ and they certainly had plenty of choice. The girls usually stayed in a hotel or with friends and are recorded in the register as ‘arrived from England.’
Nuwara Eliya with its comfortable climate was an oasis for the planters who came from the surrounding tea estates for some home comforts and social life .Under the influence of Sir Samuel Baker the hill station had become a prosperous commercial town and a carbon copy of an English village with the planters’ Hill Club as its social centre. Many planters opted to stay after retirement why go home when you can eat steam pudding and roast beef here and be served by waiters wearing white gloves. Their pensions went a long way in Ceylon and the thought of the cold and expensive climate at home did not appeal.
There are still some reminders of the British period in Nuwara Eliya, the Grand Hotel once the residence of Sir Edward Barnes, Governor of Ceylon, the Hill Club, the Post Office and the fragmented remains of the planters’ lives in its graveyards.
I am trying to find a marriage for Richard Barber and his wife Ann. They had a daughter born in Ceylon in 1833 called Jane for which I have the birth certificate but it only has her mother’s name as Ann. I am trying to find out about her mother and wonder if there is any record of Richard and Ann’s marriage or Ann Barber’s death in Ceylon.
I am trying to find the burial site and date of death of my Wife’s Great Grandfather Albert Bertram Fisher. Born 1859 Died prior to 1899
Hi I don’t have any information to help you but I am like you lost trying to find my roots. If you have any on the Ephraims family from Nuwara Eliya please contact me in Australia to tephraims@hotmail.com. I am trying to find the history of.my family that once owned ‘Darlington Gardens’ in a street I knew as a kid as Lady Mackalam Drive in Nuwara Eliya. My father was Conrad and he had a brother Ivor and a sister Audrey all now deceased. It their parents Lancelot Gilbert St George Ephraims and wife Magadaline Ephraims nee Garth are my missing links. Darlington Gardens was next the Garth Watte property. A name of interest here will be Carlo Garth along with and old spinster aunt Kerry Gath who I understand was the master gardner in her time collecting most Nuwara Eliya flower show awards possibly in the 40s and 50s.
Richard Roland Jaques arrived in Ceylon from England at the end of 1900. He married Margaret MacDowall, who was Scottish, sometime between 1900 and 1906. It is believed that they married in Ceylon. Roland was proprietor of what later became the Stafford Estate at Nuwara Eliya between 1905 and 1909. I am keen to establish when and where they married. I have not found anything about this in the Kabristan archive.
We have searched our data base without a result. We are posting you query in the hope that someone will be able to help you.
Thank you very much.
Re Roland Jaques and Margaret McDowall (the previous spelling was incorrect – i.e. Mc not Mac), I have now discovered that they married in the parish of Rerrick, Scotland, on 28 September 1904. So my query can be deleted! Many thanks for checking.