Mailing lists

Genealogy

Discontinued Rootsweb Mailing Lists

Beginning March 2nd, 2020 all Rootsweb Mailing Lists have been discontinued. Mailing list archives will remain available and searchable.

Update noted 27 September 2020. There have been changes to the Mailing List Archives. It is no longer possible to directly browse the Archives, but searching is still possible. The website URL has changed. A typical URL for a post has changed from https://lists.rootsweb.com/hyperkitty/list/india.rootsweb.com/thread/15659804/ to https://mlarchives.rootsweb.com/listindexes/emails?listname=india&thread=15659804 , or india-british-raj , as applicable. (Note, no final /)

Update noted October 2020. At times the Search quality has been noted to be very poor, but it does appear to vary. If you are unsuccessful, try at another time or day.

Further update at 22 June 2024. It appears the Mailing List Archives have in turn been archived as at November 1, 2023 and they are Searchable as follows. There is a note on the webpages (at 15 September 2024) saying "Archived since: Feb, 2023". Note Sample Search terms indicates much data is missing, perhaps there may be more access in the future?
https://rootsweb.com/ Rootsweb website with links to a page https://archive-it.org/collections/20669 with further links to a page https://archive-it.org/collections/20669?sort=f_sort_title.asc&show=ArchivedPages Search page Text. For any results perhaps you may see the wording "More Results from mlarchives.rootsweb.com", if so, click on this.
In addition you can browse/scroll the Archived Lists as follows
Access all the Mailing Lists https://wayback.archive-it.org/org-2576/20231101212331/https://mailinglists.rootsweb.com/listindexes
Access the four India Lists https://wayback.archive-it.org/org-2576/20231101223957/https://mlarchives.rootsweb.com/listindexes/overview?findlist=India including
The India List https://wayback.archive-it.org/org-2576/20231102071830/https://mlarchives.rootsweb.com/listindexes/emails?listname=india and
The British Raj List https://wayback.archive-it.org/org-2576/20231102071855/https://mlarchives.rootsweb.com/listindexes/emails?listname=india-british-raj

Rootsweb INDIA

The most popular list for those researching family history in India was the India List, commenced in 1997 and most recently hosted by Rootsweb, part of Ancestry.
There was a vast amount of information stored in the archives, but with many changes over the years, and the introduction of the last website, some information may have not been transferred.

Rootsweb INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ

According to its website the India- British- Raj List was:
A mailing list for anyone with a genealogical interest in the period of British rule of most of the Indian subcontinent (present-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and Myanmar (Burma)) which lasted from 1858, when the rule of the British East India Company was transferred to the Crown, until 1947, when the independence of British India was granted and Pakistan was formed.

New Email Group/List

The Rootsweb India- British- Raj List has migrated to a new platform at groups.io and is now called India British Raj History which states
"This group is for anyone who is interested in all things belonging to the period of time known as that of The British Raj. In addition to studying and enjoying the cultural aspects of that period of time (roughly from 1600 to 1950 A.D.), we will also help those interested in the tracing of British and European Ancestors in British India"

Other Mailing Lists

Rootsweb, now discontinued

There were Rootsweb mailing lists which included the following. To Search, see above, using the link https://archive-it.org/collections/20669?sort=f_sort_title.asc&show=ArchivedPages

• Africa
  • Africa
  • Kenya
  • Tanzania
• Asia
  • Sri Lanka/Ceylon
  • Straits Settlements
    • Malaysia
    • Singapore
  • Indonesia

There are also Ancestry Message Boards for these countries, see Message Boards: Asia

Other

The St Helena Institute's 'Forum for Family History', a Mailing List/Message Board for anyone interested in St Helena family history and genealogy (including Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha).

Message Boards

• Rootsweb India Message Board, part of Ancestry. The Message Board has the advantage that you can include an attachment, such as a photograph.
• Genforum is the website presented by Genealogy.com. Messages can be left on specific surname boards in addition to the India Genealogy Forum –or that of any other country. There are also general interest boards. All these message boards (or forums as they are called) can be browsed or searched by entering a specific word search. In addition to hosting message boards the site contains topics of general genealogical interest.
• FIBIS Members can post queries on the forum message board in the FIBIS Social Network. A particularly useful feature is the facility to upload attachments - perhaps a photograph for help in identifying a uniform or place or a section of an historic document where the old handwriting cannot be deciphered easily.
• Rootschat.com "Other Countries" includes India
• British-Genealogy.com, sometimes called "Brit-Gen" has forums on various topics.
• Following the June 2020 closure of the Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine Forum, a new forum has been established by previous WDYTYR? Forum members Who When Where Genealogy Forum

Facebook Groups

• Details of British India Family History Facebook Group, a linked FIBIS Facebook group. However, anyone can join, you do not have to be a FIBIS member, but it is a closed group so an administrator will need to approve your request to join. Direct link : Facebook group, British India Family History
• There are FamilySearch linked Facebooks pages for various Genealogy Groups. For details, see the FamilySearch Wiki page FamilySearch Genealogy Research Groups. It appears that these are closed Facebooks groups. Some of the Facebook groups are associated with FamilySearch Community Groups. To register with the FamilySearch Community Groups, you need to be signed in to both FamilySearch (initial registration required) and a separate section of FamilySearch, FamilySearch Community (separate initial registration required, which requires agreement to certain conditions). Details of FamilySearch Community however do not appear to be available until after you have registered, however see the following video provided by FamilySearch. Whether you can join the Facebook groups more directly is not known.
• East India Company & Raj Research Group 1600-1919 A Private Facebook Group based in Mumbai, Maharashtra covering "Military, civil and domestic life in India and other provinces during the era of the East India Company and British Raj from 1600 up to the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919".

Military

The following websites are, or have, military message boards. Most websites do not require registration to read posts, but all appear to require registration to post a query, or reply to a post.

• Rootsweb British Army Message Board. Rootsweb is part of Ancestry. There are also other Message Boards under the category Military.
• Rootschat.com
• Great War Forum is a message board for the First World War.
• WW2Talk Forum
• World War II Forum, an American site
• British Medals Forum. Its website says "The objective of the British Medal Forum is to develop and further the interest, research and collecting of British and Commonwealth medals; researching their recipients; and assisting each other with specialist issues such as research, naming styles, clasp combinations, etc". It is necessary to register.
• Gentleman’s Military Interest Club (GMIC)