Information - Tracing your Roots back to India

A List of South Indian Girmitiyas - This list was obtained from the Sangam Fiji Organisation. Click here to download a pdf copy of this list.

Discovering Indian Roots - Paper Series Part 1-3 By Dr Kamlesh Sharma (Canberra) This is the first paper in a series of three that Dr Kamlesh Sharma has written that provides guidance to others from Fiji who may be interested in tracing their ancestral roots in India. This is based on his personal experinces that led to the recent success in making contact with relatives in India.

This series is available in a pdf version

• Discovering Indian Roots - Part 1
• Discovering Indian Roots - Part 2
• Discovering Indian Roots - Part 3

Digitalisation Process of the Immigration Passes - (Updated)

A priority of my research and work with the Girmitunited.org website is to Digitalise the 60,954 Immigration passes that is available at the National Archives of Fiji.  This process, will require finance, and resources to complete.  Unfortunately, at this point in time, its taking more than the time estimated to get this process done, therefore, I have received an email directly from The National Archives of Fiji who are willing to provide the Immigration passes if you contact them directly.  The contact details for the researchers at the National Archives in Fiji is:

Elenoa.delailakeba@govnet.gov.fj

This measure is necessary if you are to obtain the passes immediately since the digitalation process is taking longer than expected.  I apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING PRIOR TO SENDING AN EMAIL TO THE ABOVE PERSONNEL

The National Archives of Fiji has 60,965 immigration passes of Indians who arrived in Fiji from India between 1879 - 1916.  These Passes are the only document that contains comprehensive data on the demographics of the indentured labourers. The Pass contains the migrant's depot number, sex, name, caste, father's name, age, district of origin and registration.    

The National Archives in Fiji had forwarded these 60,965 Immigration passes which are stored on microfiche at The National Library of Australia.  I am trying to access these passes from the Library at Canberra via the Interstate Library Loan Scheme.  With the limited resources and funding, it can be quite difficult at this stage.  I hope to contact The National Library of Australia with a request that we have a considerable number of Fiji Indians who wish to gain access to these passes. 

Apart from this, the NLA has the following records which was obtained from the Fiji Central Archives (in Suva) which may be of interest to many of you:

	Register of Deaths by accident, violence, suicide between 1914- 1922
	Fiji Immigration Department List of Fiji born Indians repatriated to India 1924 - 1930
	List of Indentured Indians repatriated to India 1881-1892

Discover Indian Roots Basic Information - By Satish Rai (Sydney)

There are some hurdles one must overcome in order to trace one's ancestral homes in India. The first hurdle is to find the immigration pass of the ancestors that are kept at the National Archives in Suva Fiji. In order to locate the pass one must have the following information:

Name of the girmitiya AND

Name of girmitiyas father OR

Name of the ship on which she/he arrived in Fiji.

These information can be obtained by speaking with older relatives who may have had interacted with the girmitiyas or heard their parents talking about the girmitiyas. Unfortunately these information is fast disappearing as the older generation is depleting fast. 

With the above information one will be able to locate the immigration pass number in the Register kept at the Archives. That pass number needs to be given to the workers there and they will provide you with a copy of the immigration pass at nominal cost.

The most effective way of doing this is going to the Archives yourself or sending a relative living in Fiji there. In absence of that it has come to my attention that the officers of the Archive may assist once sufficient information is provided to them.

The second biggest hurdle to overcome is actually finding the girmitiyas village/relatives in India. Some people do find them and some don't. I have been able to trace my aaji's village but not my aaja's, even though I went to the village listed in his immigration pass.

The second stage of the search needs to be conducted with help from people in India. My advice is that people should only make plans to visit India to visit their ancestral village and relative should do so only when the ancestral place and relatives have been found. Otherwise the visit could turn out to be a disaster. However, this does not prevent people from visiting India as a tourist.

By Satish Rai
BA (Hons)-London, MA- London-Sydney

These Immigration passes are also archived at the National Archives of Fiji in their original form is available in some 240 large folios.  It could be a long process to contact the National Archivist remotely, and a suggestion would be to contact them in person.  I had written to the Government Archivist in Fiji in Dec 2007 requesting the process, cost and timeline involved to access these passes from overseas.  But I still havent heard from them despite the so many follow ups. The following are the contact details if anyone wishes to contact them:

	Office Location : 25 Carnavon Street (Corner of Kimberly and Carnavon Street) in Suva, Fiji
	Postal Address : PO Box 2125, Government Buildings, Suva, Fiji
	Phone :(679) 3304144
	Fax: (679) 3307006
	Elenoa.delailakeba@govnet.gov.fj

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