The India Project is looking for new members

Question

Are you from India? Do you have Indian ancestors? Are you interested in Indian history and culture? If so, why not consider joining the WikiTree India Project?

Here are some things members can do:

- Work on tracing your family tree with others who share similar ancestries.

- Locate and share resources for conducting Indian genealogy. 

- Help create, develop and connect the profiles of Indian Notables. 

- Build and connect the profiles of everyday Indian families.

- Research Indian diaspora and help connect Indian families from around the globe to their ancestors back in India.

- Assist members with the translation of Indian documents and develop language guidelines for Indian profiles.  

- Conduct a one-place study for an Indian location or cemetery.

- Develop a free space page subproject on an Indian-related theme of your choice. 

To join the India Project, simply drop us a note below. Tell us a little about who you are and why India sparks your interest, and we'll get you signed up promptly. 

India Project 

Global Project Country List

Comments

For those who are new to WikiTree or who perhaps have simply never thought about the following, I'd like to take a moment to illustrate why it is important to add as many Indian profiles as possible to WikiTree.

Suppose you have an Indian family consisting of a couple and their two sons. The entire branch of this tree consists of just four people. Suppose we also have a branch of Indians numbering 150 members, but also without a connection to the Global Tree, despite its size.

Now, suppose the eldest son of your branch moves to London to attend school. There he meets and marries a nice British girl, whose family is connected to the Global Tree. Then suppose the younger brother married a young woman from that unconnected 150-member tree branch. Suddenly, that entire 150-member tree is now connected to the Global Tree. That's 150 additional opportunities for yet another Indian family to connect their own branch to the Global Tree. What's more, each time we add another individual to this Indian family tree, it's yet another opportunity for another Indian family to connect. Ideally, over time, connecting an Indian family to the Global Tree will no longer seem like such a farfetched idea.

Answer 1

I have Indian relatives, originating in the Punjab and Mumbai/Bombay. They are an eclectic group: Sikh, Hindu, Moslem, Parsee, and Buddhist, some scattered on a few continents. Whether I can interest them in becoming Wikitreers is the main issue.

Comments

That would be amazing if you could get your Indian relatives to join WikiTree. Even if they are not experienced genealogist, even adding their known family members to the tree would be an invaluable gift. Alternatively, they could provide you with information about their families which you could either add yourself or forward to the team and we could add it.

Since this is a thread for joining the India Project, I have added your name to our project roster. If it was not your intention to join, just let me know and I'll remove your name from the list.

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Thank you David,

That was exactly my intention, as you described! (All other WT projects not withstanding!)

Chris

Answer 2

Indian origin, of course, but with an uprooted family tree.

Pleased to cooperate with anyone.

Thank you

Comments

Hi Sanjay,

I've added you to our project roster. Watch out for our welcome letter coming soon.

Answer 3

I would like to join the India Project. I am English, but have taken an interest in India for a long time. I have researched a lot of British people from the 18th to 20th centuries and put them on wikitree, including many of my ancestors and relations as well as other people of historical interest. Some of these people spent time in India in connection with British rule there. I have made an effort to assign and categorize them to the right places and regions in India. In the course of this, I contributed a lot to Indian categorization on Wikitree. Some people did not like some of my contributions, and this led to discussion. I would like to continue my activity in this area.

Martin Clifford Styan (Styan-40)

Comments

Members of my  family were born,lived and were buried in Indian over a period of about 100 years.They were Anglo Irish and lived mainly in the Madras Presidency.I am interested in collaborating with other people with a similar background to my father’s family

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Martin,

I'm sorry you encountered conflicts with some of earlier contributions, but we welcome you to our new team. The best way to avoid future conflicts is to simply present your ideas to the team before making any major changes. We recognize that good people can hold vastly differing view points on a given topic, but nobody should ever be made to feel that their opinions don't matter.

You certainly don't need to be Indian to join the India Project. I have added you to our roster. If you've watched any of our 15 Nations or Global Spotlight video where we've discussed our Indian research experiences, you know that often we have found the best Indian records in the archives of London

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Elizabeth, I have also added your name to our project roster.

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Thank you David

Answer 4

My great great grandfather Robinson Lewis Salvador appears to have jumped ship from India in about 1853.

Born in or near Calcutta about 1832-35.

This is all I know and is my brick wall on my paternal Salvador line.

Comments

if Salvador (Salvador-64) was catholic, did you were able to find any of his church records (marriage or marriage process)?

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Sn

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No.

I have found his marriage in Australia and have copious records from that point on. But he married an underage girl and the marriage records were a bit dodgy, so no parental info there.

In India he boarded a ship called the Jemima in Tutticorin from which he absconded in Australia. He joined the Merchant Navy in 1853 before all of this, but again, the record is sparse.

His origins and details in India seem to be non-existent.

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Elaine, 

I'd love to hear more about this story. But from the sound of it, so would you!  The last name Salvador is interesting as it sounds neither Indian nor British. Frankly, it sounds Spanish or Portuguese. Could that be a clue? Or is it possible he made up the name to conceal his identity?

I've added your name to our project roster. Maybe our team can help you fill in some of the blanks  

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I wrote a piece called Salvador in India which is in Wiki Tree.

Myself and paternal cousin Dr.Gavin Salvador dna tested to follow up on the Salvador line but Gavin's dna had mutations and can't be read back.  We did learn though that we were 16th cousins to Sir William Arbuthnot who had a  Salvador ancestor and an Aguilar. (Sir Will and I used to email to talk about my ancestry studies, to swap discoveries about his Salvador and Garcia people and I sent photos and news items from Australia for general interest.) Gavin had an Aguilar in his Y results and arrived at his 'cousinship' via those lines. I arrived via other Cornish and Scottish genes from my mother's side/

I am certain we are related to Joseph Salvador of the British East India Company, but, need to trace those family and dna links in India between about 1730 and 1835 when my second great grandfather was born.

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Maybe Salvador was connected to the Holy Rosary Cathedral in Kolkata (Wikipedia): "...(Commonly known as the Portuguese Church) in Burrabazar, Kolkata, is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Calcutta. It is also known as the Murgihata Church and was founded in 1799."

If he was catholic maybe there are some church records (marriages or marriages processes) in Australia with the names of his parents and where he was baptized.

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Sn

(edited - fixed link)

Answer 5

My father came from India and I am researching his genealogy… without much success!

I would like to join this group

Comments

IM, I have added you to our project roster.

Answer 6

I have entered my husband’s family as much as oral history allows.  I’m happy to join the group, but I’m not sure how much the tree can be extended considering there are very limited resources for India.  I happen to be in India right now, and I will ask all of the relatives at a family function that I can place to put their branches on the tree.

Comments

Linda,
Documenting family in places like Asia and Africa can absolutely be a challenge, especially the further back in time you go. But we do the best we can. The more Indian profiles we can add to WikiTree, the better chance other Indian families will be able to make a connection to the Global Tree. But ultimately, there comes a time in all family trees where we have to rely on social history rather than personal histories to tell our family's stories.  

I have added you to our project roster.

Answer 7

Hi

I have a French ancestor (Rauly) who arrived in Chandernagore in about 1725 and married a (probably) Portuguese / Indian woman (strong MTDNA evidence) soon after arrival. Their daughter, my ancestor, was educated in Paris and on return married an  English Huguenot indigo planter (Guinand). When he died she took her 7 children to England. At some point she returned to India and died in 1829 in Bandel. She remained a Catholic throughout but her children were re babtised as Protestant in England.  Her 3 sons, 2 artillery officers and a teacher, also went to India but died young. Her daughters remained in England.

Trevor Hislop

Comments

For purposes of connecting Indian families to the Global Tree, branches like you've just described are a real treasure. If you can connect and of your ancestor's children in England to the Tree, every Indian relation you add henceforth, will automatically be connected to the tree. What's more, any other Indian researcher who is able to connect their Indian family to your Indian family will also be connected to the tree.   

I have added your name to our project roster.

Answer 8

I have limited knowledge of military history however I have an ancestor who was born in India while the father was stationed there. I would be interested in learning more about this connection. And knowing if others have found similar connections with their ancestors.

Comments

A military subproject might not be a bad idea. The India project is not simply from families of Indian descent, but also for anyone whose ancestors' records might be held in India. (As well as for those who simply have an interest in India without necessarily having a direct connection to the country.)

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Hi Kylie

My 3xggranfather was born in Secunderbad, Madras in the 1830s to who we believe was an Anglo Indian woman and man in the British army who was stationed there.  So, yes, sounds very similar to you and I think there were quite a few.  We think she died and he returned to England, leaving my 3xggranfather in an orphanage.  He then came to Australia via a Colonial Secretary scheme.  We can find no trace of his mother's first marriage, birth, etc.

Answer 9

Happy to help this project where I can. I am a trustee of the Families in British India Society (FIBIS) and Manager of their website and social media. I also give talks on researching British India family history and the administrator of the FIBIS DNA project. I was a trustee and website manager of the British Association of Cemeteries in South Asia (BACSA) until recently. I stood down as I am cutting back on website work due to eyesight problems, but still help them as a website consultant.

I have no experience on researching Indian ancestry, just the British in India, but would love to learn more about it.

Comments

We'd love to have your help with this project. As I noted above, this project is not just for individuals of Indian descent, but for anyone whose family records might be help in India as well as for anyone simply interested in Indian culture and history.

I'll add you to our roster.

Answer 10

If anyone is interested in Europeans who were in India (prior to 1898) there is a document "List of tombs and monuments of Europeans, and co. in the Madras district" by Indian Department of Archaeology which can be found on the Internet Archive:  https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.22728/page/n63/mode/2up

If anyone is living in the Chennai (formerly Madras) area, I would like to know if the Free Church of Scotland Mission Chapel (mentioned in the above work) still exists in the Royapuram district of that city.

Thanks in advance.

Comments

Hi G.K.

Hopefully, somebody will be able to help you with your question. In the meantime, although you didn't specifically request it, I'll add you to our project roster. If that's not your desire, just let me know and I'll take you back off.

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I really have nothing to contribute to the project other than the referenced book in which I found my relative listed. I have no other connection to India aside from that one relative who was a missionary.

Wish you all the best with the project.

Thanks for responding.