Multan and Bahawalpur: the south-west Punjab
Multan, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rahim Yar Khan, Muzaffargarh, Sahiwal. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.
Whose archive this ground was
| Years | Who held it | Whose archive that means |
|---|---|---|
| 1500–1748 | Before registers. | no registers survive Before registers. |
| 1748–1818 | Bahawalpur (Daudpotra) and neighbouring chiefdoms | no registers survive Bahawal Khan of the Daudpotra tribe, who came from Shikarpur in Sindh, founded Bahawalpur state in 1748. |
| 1818–1849 | Sikh Empire - Multan; Bahawalpur under its Nawabs | no registers survive The Sikh Empire conquered Multan in 1818. Bahawalpur kept its own rulers and made its first treaty with the British in 1833 (22 February), followed by the Treaty of Ahmudpore on 5 October 1838. |
| 1849–1858 | East India Company: Multan in the annexed Punjab | National Archives of India · FIBIS — Families in British India Society · FamilySearch The Punjab was annexed in 1849 and run by a Board of Administration to 1853, then a Chief Commissioner to 1858. Bahawalpur remained a state in subsidiary alliance with the British. |
| 1858–1947 | British Raj: Multan in the Punjab; Bahawalpur a princely state | FIBIS — Families in British India Society · Findmypast · FamilySearch Multan was in the Punjab Province. Bahawalpur kept its own administration, so its census and registers are separate from the provincial series; its 1941 population was 1,341,209 and censuses were counted each decade from 1871. |
| 1947–1955 | Pakistan - West Punjab; Bahawalpur State | FamilySearch · The 1947 Partition Archive Bahawalpur signed its accession to Pakistan on 5 October 1947 and Pakistan accepted it on 9 October 1947, the first state to accede. |
| 1955–2026 | Pakistan - the Punjab province | FamilySearch Bahawalpur merged into West Pakistan on 14 October 1955, with the Nawab keeping his titles and a privy purse. Balochistan was re-created as a province in 1970. |
The rings are approximate — deliberately. They exist to shade which filing system a place fell under, not to adjudicate a border. A place near a ring's edge should be checked against both neighbours.
See the whole span, 1500–2026, on the map →
The map takes a range, and a range that crosses one of the rows above is where records get lost: the family never moved, and the archive on the far side of the handover will tell you it holds nothing.