Ancestors from the Indian subcontinent

Anglo-Indian or European ancestors

If your family were British, European or Anglo-Indian, living in India, then there are quite a lot of resources available to help you trace your family history.

The following websites are particularly useful and should be able to help you make a good start:

• Moving Here (opens new window)   
• Families in British India Society (opens new window)  
• The India Office in the British Library (opens new window) holds many useful records
• The Society of Genealogists (opens new window) holds copies of many baptisms, marriages, burials, monumental inscriptions and wills of the British in India

Ancestors from Bangladesh

Registering of births, marriages and deaths is not compulsory in Bangladesh, but some records are in existence.

During partition, many records were transferred between East and West Bengal.

However, attempts to get records from Pakistan have not been so successful.

The Bangladesh National Library and Archives (opens new window) can offer advice on tracing family history.  

Ancestors from Pakistan

Registration is not compulsory in Pakistan and unfortunately a fire in 1948 destroyed most of the records for the Karachi area. 

For advice on tracing family history in Pakistan, see the National Archives of Pakistan (opens new window) website.

The website Genealogy (opens new window) has a Pakistan Genealogy Forum.   

Ancestors from Sri Lanka

There is a good set of records in existence for people researching family history in Sri Lanka - for advice, contact the National Archives of Sri Lanka (opens new window). 

For information about census records contact the Information Unit of the Department of Census and Statistics.

Useful websites include Genealogy (opens new window) and Ceylon Tamils (opens new window). 

Ancestors from Nepal

A useful website for Nepalese genealogy is FamilySearch (opens new window).