This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: louliecsb Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.asia.india.general/2535.2/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Hi Bean Below are a list of website to begin with. Best not to pay a subscription until you have exhausted all free access sites. Only become a paying member if you have the time to make the most of your subscription. Try just paying for units first so that you can establish whether the site in question has a lot to offer your research www.rootsweb.com - join the mailing list - Click on mailing list, keywood India, before signing up look through the India archive section type in surname. Then sign up to India-L (not the D for digest). This is FREE. What is good about this list is everyone helps out. Always a good idea to search the archive of this list in case the name you are looking for has been put to the list in the past. If you decide to take your search further then do join the rootsweb India mailing list, the rootsweb site has mailing lists worldwide for all countries. www.familysearch.org - LDS this is a FREE searching facility, always start by just putting in the surname only, then click on the required section (location) on the right hand side. Then you can refine your search if you wish. End of May 2010 LDS did a pilot scheme which is currently still in progress and have added many more records, especially where India (Asia) is concerned. The best way to access this site now is select from across the top - Search Record, Click on Record Search Pilot - At this stage do not put a first name - Put the surname - Location, type India (when the drop down shows, select the first one India) best to do this otherwise you get Indiana in America as well. - Events: if you are looking for a specific event then select one, again best to leave as all then you can narrow down later. Spend time on here working out how to select and the best way to print off records. The draw back is it is not in date order, so you do need to trawl if loads of entries. The British Library (UK). They have put their index cards online, this is not all the records only a small amount which were indexed. Therefore, you may not find any or you may be lucky and find many. www.bl.uk (save the main site first in bookmarks) - then click on Collections, click India Office Records - scroll down a little - click India Office Family History (now save this as well in your bookmarks/favourites) as you will use the latter of this site often. My personal experience of this has been that whatever is online - that when I have then also looked on the microfiche film at the library the info has been exactly what was online. www.fibis.org - You can search this FREE. A good site to also become a member of. Cathy Day's site became part of FIBIS some years back. www.genesreunited.co.uk - You need to sign up FREE - Put whatever surname and location, India (searching is FREE) - but to make contact with any possible connections you need to pay/subscribe. www.sumgenius.com - or you may need to www.sumgenius.com.au/index.htm I normally only go here from time to time to see if any new families have been added. Although the surnames are not all cross referenced. If someone has put their tree on as SMITH and has FOOTE names attached, you may not find FOOTE by looking in F. www.geneanet.org - This is a French site - used worldwide (can select your language). www.ancestry.com - most sites will lead you to this www.findmypast.com www.ancestry.co.uk or www.ancestry.com - an initial search is free but to view you have to pay, worth buying units and making the most of them at the time. Worth joining if you intend to make the most of your year's membership and if you have good concrete names and dates you are looking for. www.movinghere.com - Passengers List - Free to view the details so check this before going to a pay view site, although not all are listed. It is a very good site, as once you have entered the surname it then shows you which areas of the world those surnames headed for. www.cyndislist.com or try www.cyndislist.com/asia www.indiaman.com www.infobel.com & www.calcuttatelephones.com - These are useful to see if there are any surnames of interest listed in the India directories, not all areas work. Reference purposes only. www.archivecdbooks.org Old books available on CD not just genealogy. www.indiabooks.co.uk - worth a look at. Best wishes Cheryl Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.