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Author Topic: Trinidad (Indians)  (Read 585 times)

Offline JeremyS

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Trinidad (Indians)
« on: Tuesday 09 March 21 16:18 GMT (UK) »
Hi!

My partner's family descend from among the thousands of indentured workers who moved under the British Empire from India to Trinidad. Any pointers as to where to start my research would be fantastic, as nothing is showing in my searches on Ancestry.

Many thanks, Jeremy

Offline pughcd

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Re: Trinidad (Indians)
« Reply #1 on: Sunday 30 January 22 12:46 GMT (UK) »
Hi Jeremy,

Your post does not mention if your partner has taken a DNA test at Ancestry.

I am about a quarter South Asian having an Indian grandmother and my Ancestry DNA shows that I have a DNA Community -"Indian Diaspora in the Caribbean & Fiji 1825-1975".  This suggests that my South Asian ancestors were part of the indentured worker migration to the Caribbean. It also explains why I have several DNA cousin matches based in Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica etc

pughcd
Ingham, Crabtree, Ogden, Horsfield - Yorkshire, Dixon, Park, Spooner - Westmorland, Drinkwater - Lancashire,  Gonsalves, Tressler - Lahore, Pakistan, Oberbremer, Baute, Rieke, Lindemeier, Sewing, Mesterheide, Clauss, Althoff, Wortmann, - North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany, Grolms, Schonscheck, Weiss, Schwartz, Stephan, Weissin -West Prussia

Offline moragfw

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Re: Trinidad (Indians)
« Reply #2 on: Wednesday 02 February 22 08:24 GMT (UK) »
Hi Jeremy,

Sadly nothing will really show up on Ancestry. If your partner knows the name of the person who migrated, what ship they travelled on or (if they have a lucky document find) if they happen to have a copy or know who does have a copy of the indenture document that's usually the best place to start.

If they don't have that you might be able to narrow it down by knowing what year they arrived in Trinidad and roughly what district they came from in India. The National Archives in Trinidad hold quite a lot of registers of indentured labourers and they are really helpful in scanning information but often the registers only recorded people by first name so you need to know a bit of additional information in order to track the right person down. You can then sometimes use this information to cross-reference back to India.

Shamshu Deen has written some excellent books about genealogy for people descended from indentured labourers. I can also recommend some books for contextualisation of the system if that helps?

Good luck with your research!

Morag
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