Recent DNA testing seems to suggest that the origins of Alexander Hall Shedden who lived in the Trivandrum area of India were from the Parishes of Beith or Fenwick in Ayrshire, Scotland. So far, I have not found any actual common relatives but two DNA paths lead directly back to Beith and Fenwick from two ancestry.co.uk members who are matched to a known descendant of Alexander Hall Shedden. Neither of these two ancestry members have any Indian ethnicity in their DNA.

I have created four family trees for Shedden families of interest in Ayrshire using information discovered from several on-line sources.
John and Robert in trees 1 and 2 are brothers, they are the sons of John Shedden of Hazlehead-Toun.
I am aware of several inconsistances in these trees, further research may resolve these and discover the connection between the Anglo Indian and the Ayrshire families.

• Tree 1 shows the descendants of John Shedden and Margaret Montgomerie of Marshyland and Morrishill.
• Tree 2 shows the descendants of Robert Shedden and Jean Harvey of Roughwood.
• Tree 3 shows the descendants of Robert Shedden and Christian or Christina Craig.
• Tree 4 shows the descendants of Robert Shedden and Margaret Simson of Morrishill.

On-line sources used to create these trees:

• History of the County of Ayr. For a PDF extract of the four relevant pages Click here
• The Memoir of William Wilson of Crummock
• A Genealogical and Heraldic history of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland By Sir Bernard Burke Vol 2 Shedden of Spring Hill
• Legacies of British Slave Ownership
• The Statistical Accounts of Scotland Beith Parish 1845
• National Records of Scotland ScotlandsPeople Old Parish Records
• Map showing Old Ayrshire Parishes
• Honourable East India Company records held at the British Library, some of which are available on findmypast.co.uk

Individual Family Tree pages