Day 14: Family History Resources

• Daniel Marshall

This post is part of the Anglo-Indian Project Holiday Season series 2017

Over 25 useful tools, resources and links for researching family history in British India:

1. Families in British India Society (highly recommended)

…an [charitable] organisation devoted to members with an interest in researching their ancestors and the background against which they led their lives in ‘British India’. 

The Society was formed in November 1998 to provide a resource for people researching families and their social history in India from 1600 up to, and even after, Indian Independence in 1947.

Membership is a very reasonable £15 per year (at the time of writing), which provides access to the FIBIS databases and a very helpful community of fellow ancestry researchers and experts.

2. British Library, London (highly recommended)

The Asian and African Reading Room is where they store the records for the India Office Family History Search. A valuable resource for researching your ancestry in British India. The staff are very friendly, helpful and knowledgeable on British India (and wider Asia and Africa). Membership is free.

3. Find my past 

All British India records are digitized on Find my past. However, the digitized records do not necessarily have the documents available electronically (you can access these in the British Library – see (2) above). A subscription service, but free if accessed in most public libraries.

4. Anglo-Indian-Central (highly recommended)

A free online library of links and resources for Anglo-Indian research.

5. Family Echo 

Very useful online tool for building an interactive family tree.

6. Census Records

UK-based census searches. Useful for finding details of relatives in the UK.

7. Family Search (highly recommended)

A non-profit organisation collating ‘the largest collection of genealogical and historical records in the world.’

8. Society of Genealogists 

Charitable organisation which ‘has many unique unpublished manuscript notes and printed and unpublished family histories. Its library contains Britain’s largest collection of parish register copies and many nonconformist registers. Along with registers, the library holds local histories, copies of churchyard gravestone inscriptions, poll books, trade directories, census indexes and a wealth of information about the parishes where our ancestors lived.’

9. Calcutta Tiljallah Relief (CTR) 

A US based charity to help indigent Anglo-Indians in India

10. Anglos in the Wind magazine

11. A compilation of research, publications, global events and many more Anglo-Indian related resources 

12. Anglo-Indian resources including the International Journal of Anglo-Indian Studies and The Anglo-Indian Wallah

13. Anglo-Indian family trees

14. Anglo-Indian Project including:

  1. Resources for Ancestry Research: British India
  2. Resources for Ancestry Research II
  3. Family Research Challenges
  4. Resources III
  5. Family Names in Britain and Ireland
  6. Families in British India Society (FIBIS)
  7. Resources IV: British Library
  8. X marks the Spot!
  9. The Presidencies of British India: Bengal, Bombay and Madras
  10. The Presidencies of British India II: Bengal, Bombay and Madras
  11. The Presidencies of British India: Bombay
  12. The Presidencies of British India: Bengal

Explore the Anglo-Indian Project further for more links, support and guidance. In particular use the search, categories and tags functions to explore the content.

Happy hunting!

Coming Soon: In Search of Ancestors in British India: Where to Start – Sign up here

If you are interested in being involved, finding out more, or just curious, we welcome your communication using our Get in Touch page or join our mailing list here.

Cover picture by Sponchia on pexels.com

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