Importance and Significance
Calcutta is one of the few communities of Baghdadi origin that have early and extensive records on marriages and circumcisions, Each record contains a great deal of information since it has not only the bride or groom’s name but that of their fathers, grandfathers and often great-grandfathers.
The extant family records from Baghdad itself are few and far between, especially for anything before 1920. The names here can be tied into the Baghdad Military Exemption Tax lists that are available for 1892 thus linking families that stayed in Iraq with those in India.
The cemetery register usually contains a man’s name and that of his forefathers but for women, it is most frequently, just her name attached to her husband’s. Now one is able to find the family of the female side of the family and therefore, the marriage records allows a descendant to create a proper family tree.
For example: In the cemetery records, we can find Aziza Abraham Reuben Luddy, who passed away on 11 Adar I 5646 (1886). You could find many descendants of Abraham Reuben Luddy but with the help of the marriage register, we can identify that Aziza was the daughter of Moses Azir and she married in Adar 5618 (1858). We can also see that she was the sister of Rahma married to Ezekiel Joshua [Aga] Baba, Simha married to Solomon Ezekiel Hacham Moses and Reemah married to Siiliman Meyer Moses.