Genealogy
A list of websites and databases to help you begin to trace your ancestors. Please get in touch and share your stories with us, we would love to hear from you.
The UK National Archives has a guide to researching the history of indentured labour. This includes a downloadable register of births, marriages and deaths at sea (1891-1972), recorded by the the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/indian-indentured-labourers/
UNESCO has declared the documentary heritage of indentured labour migration to be part of the ‘Memory of the World’ and has provided an index to available public archives: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/memory-of-the-world/register/full-list-of-registered-heritage/registered-heritage-page-7/records-of-the-indian-indentured-labourers/
Information on Indian Emigration Passes to Fiji 1879-1916 have been compiled by the National Library of Australia: https://www.nla.gov.au/research-guides/indian-emigration-passes-to-fiji-1879-1916
A database containing the records of 27,000 of the 34,000 migrants from India to Surinam in colonia times is available online on the server of the Royal Archives of the Netherlands www.gahetna.nl/collectie/ index/nt00345
Ships Lists for Migrants to Natal, in South Africa, have been made available online by the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal: http://scnc.ukzn.ac.za/doc/SHIP/shipndx.html The data can also be purchased on CD http://molegenealogy.blogspot.jp/2012/07/indian-immigration-registersships-lists.html
Information on researching family history in Trinidad & Tobago is available here: http://trinidadandtobagofamilyhistory.org/eastindianimmigr.html
Mauritian Immigration Records are held in the archives of the Mahatma Gandhi Institute: http://mgi.intnet.mu/archives/
The Aapravasi Ghat World Heritage Site in Mauritius also has a developing documentation centre: http://www.aapravasighat.org/English/Pages/default.aspx
A multilingual online database is available for Mauritian sources: www.genealogie.mu
The Families in British India Society, which focusses on British families in India, has a searcheable database: http://www.fibis.org
Other useful Indian links (these include links to pay-for-use family history search services:
http://genealogy.about.com/od/india/tp/Research-In-British-India.htm
http://www.genealogylinks.net/country/india/index.html
