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*Tracing Your Roots > South Asian > Records in Other Countries
* GSU Microfilm Records 
 
The Latter Day Saints organisation, via the Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU), has microfilmed a number of record sets, which can be consulted at any of their LDS Family History Centres.

Hindu Pilgrimage Marriage Records
This series contains Hindu pilgrimage records for Haridwar and several other Hindu pilgrimage centres.

The records were created by priests (pandits) located at each site, who would record the name, date, hometown and purpose of visit for each pilgrim. These records were grouped according to family and ancestral home. The holdings by GSU include:

  • Hardwar
  • Kurukshetra
  • Pehowa
  • Chintpurni
  • Jawalapur
  • Jawalamukhi
Maithil Brahmin Genealogical Records
These records were to establish degrees of relationship between prospective brides and grooms in order to determine whether the marriage is prohibited.

Islamic Marriage Records
Areas and dates covered are:

  • Meerut (Uttar Pradesh). Qazi-Muslim marriage records, 1881-1982
  • Bulandshahr (Uttar Pradesh). Qazi-Muslim marriage records, 1921-55
Christian Church Records
Microfilm copies of these records have been deposited at the National Archives of India for scholarly access.

The GSU has a large holding of Christian church records from India and surrounding areas. Most of these are parish registers, which include mainly baptism, marriage and burial records, and occasionally confirmations, donations, church censuses and other parochial records. Microfilm copies of these records have been donated to the administrative offices of the churches.

Roman Catholic Church Records from Goa
There are parish registers for 92 churches that consist of baptisms, marriages and burials. Records are in Latin and Portuguese and date from the 18th to the 20th century, with most from the late-19th and early-20th centuries.

Roman Catholic Church Records from Pondicherry
There are parish registers from 1744 into the 20th century for 57 churches. These are mostly for parishes from Pondicherry and related areas in the South Arcot District. Tamil Nadu. Records are in Latin, French and Tamil and include religious censuses and ten-year indexes.

Civil Registration Records for Pondicherry

  • Karikal (Pondicherry) civil registration, 1792-1864
  • Mahe (Pondicherry) civil registration, 1826-64
  • Pondicherry civil registration 1731-1867
Includes records for Karikal, Chandernagor, Pondicherry, Mahe and Yanaon.

Records of Indians in Fiji

  • Police Department and Immigration
  • Plantation register of Indian immigrants to Fiji, 1879-1919
  • Register of deaths of Indian immigrants (by plantation), 1899-1922
  • Emigration Agent records
  • Indian immigration passes, 1879-1916
Records of Indians in South Africa
Methodist Church. Indian Mission (Durban, Natal) Parish registers, 1911-42

Access to GSU Records
The catalogues and the microfilmed materials of these records are available through GSU international family history centre system (that is, branch library) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Each centre has a catalogue available for consultation and ordering films. A small loan fee is assessed to recover part of the cost of duplicating and mailing films. The web address of the Church of LDS family history centre in England is *www.lds.org.uk

A microfiche copy of its India catalogue and a list of family history centre locations may be obtained by writing to:
Genealogical Society of Utah
50 East North Temple
Salt Lake City, Utah 84150
USA

There is a small number of South Asian records in the LDS's International Genealogical Index, which can be consulted online at *www.familysearch.com.


Creators: Abi Husainy

 
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