Tea Plantation
Records
From the end of the 19th century special sections covering tea plantations appear in Thackers Indian Directories. FIBIS Fact File No 3 - Indian Directories by Richard Morgan states "The tea section lists within each area the names of the firms, their “tea gardens” (areas under cultivation), the trade mark or logo of the company as it was stamped on their tea chests , the postal address, acreage, proprietors, general managers and assistants, Indian agents and addresses, and London Agents and addresses”
An example, is given of how a genealogical history can be obtained by using the annual directories in this context.
Fibis Resources
- FIBIS Journal no 9 contains an article entitled "Jokai Tea Estates" by Dick Barton. This also contains a useful reading list.
Historical books
- Article Industrial Resources of British India contains a section on tea Google Books 1863
- The British Library has the following book in its catalogue:
Taylor’s Maps of the following Tea Districts, Darjeeling, Terai, Jalpaiguri and Dooars, Darrang, Golaghat, Jorhat Nowgong, Sibsagar, Lakhimpur, Dibrugarh, Cachar, Sylhet, with complete Index to all Tea Gardens, published 1910
- Old times in Assam by T Kinney 1896 Archive.org A tea planter’s life in the early 1860’s. Reprints from columns in the Englishman and Indian Planters’ Gazette.
- A tea planter's life in Assam by George M Barker 1884. Archive.org. With seventy five illustrations by the author.
- Indian Tea, its Culture & Manufacture by Claud Bald 1907. Archive.org (One of the books on the reading list in the Fibis Article mentioned above).
External links
- Koi-Hai a site for those who lived and worked in North East India, particularly in the Tea industry. Includes articles, list of relevant books, photos, some grave inscriptions, tourism information
- Very interesting and detailed interviews of many aspects of the life and work of a tea planter. Travancore State, Calcutta, Darjeeling, N.W.F.P. Recorded by A.S. Robertson and his son, A.F. Robertson (1976 and 1979) from University of Cambridge - Centre of South Asian Studies. Listen to the interviews, or read the transcripts.
- Tea Planter in Bengal a posting from the rootsweb India mailing list archives giving advice and information on researching Tea Planters .
- Business records relating to tea companies in the Guildhall Library, London. It seems likely these companies are ones registered in the U.K.
- Old Indian Photos has pictures of Assam and tea
