A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY ON LIZ CHATER AN ARMENIAN FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCHER SPECIALIZING IN ARMENIANS IN INDIA

AZG Armenian Daily
06/02/2009

Diaspora

Liz Chater, who is based in the UK, has been researching the Armenians
in India for the last nine years. Her interest in the Armenians
came about because she knew very little about her father’s family,
and so started looking into her family history. She soon discovered
that she had Armenian ancestry. At the time, there was very little
information available on the Armenians in India, and so as she
discovered information she shared it with others interested in the
India connection.

Four years ago, she decided to start an ambitious project to photograph
and transcribe all the Armenian graves in India and to make that
information freely available to other interested researchers. Following
many trips to India she was able to place approximately 3000 pictures
of the Armenian graves on her extremely popular website. However,
due to lack of funding she has had to close her website for the
foreseeable future, but is hopeful that a benefactor will be found
to help fund the website and her unique research so that she can once
again resume her research and complete the project. Liz’s genealogical
database has over 5,500 Armenians who once lived, worked and died in
Asia and it is hoped that she will be able to get this information
published and into the wider arena for others to benefit from.

During her research Liz also took time to look into the life of a
distant ancestor of hers, Sir Catchick Paul Chater who was born in
Calcutta in 1846 and, by all accounts, lived a most remarkable and
successful life in the Far East. At the kind invitation of Bishop
Armash Nalbandian, of the primate of the Armenian Diocese in Damascus,
Liz will be visiting Damascus from the 1st February and during that
time she hopes to be able to meet as many of the community in Damascus
and talk about this most unique Armenian who lived in the 19th and
early 20th centuries in Hong Kong and share some of his life and
successes with you.