DNA and Genealogy

At Christmas my Indian husband took a DNA test with Ancestry.com. He just got the results. They weren't too surprising. It said his DNA was 78% South Asia and 14% Asia East. This is not uncommon for Indians in the northern states, since they are more likely to intermarry with other east asian groups. Many of the indentured laborers sent to Fiji were from Uttar Pradesh (a state in the north), his ancestors included (the ones we have found so far anyway).

What was a little surprising is that his DNA also contained 7% Melanesian and 1% Polynesian. So, one of his ggg-grandparents might have been Fijian, which we had never heard before. But, since at least 2 of his gg-grandparents were born in Fiji, although they have Indian names, it is possible that one was only half Indian. Time to do a little more climbing in the family tree.

Girmit Day in Fiji

Every May 14th in Fiji there are celebrations for the Girmityas. The first ship of Indian indentured laborers arrived in Fiji on May 14, 1879. Today their descendants remember their sacrifice, their dreams, their hardships, and  honor their memory and legacy.
While Fiji still has problems with racism and the communities of native Fijians and Indians don't always get along, the celebration of Girmit Day is also used to help Indians work towards better relations with others.
India High Commissioner Gitesh Sarma said "The celebration today reflects modern Fiji where everybody is part of this country and has an equal chance to make a contribution in the development of the country."
Let's hope this spirit of hope and good will continues.
***
With Girmit Day there are often several stories in the news about the Girmityas. Here is a small sampling:
Old Girmit: A Journey of New Freedom
Celebrating the Life of Girmitya
Fiji Girmit's Great Legacy
Journey of 80 Years
Legacy of the Koya Clan in Ba

Happy Diwali 2014

This time of year is festive in Fiji. On Oct 9th they celebrate their independence from British rule. This year they held their first election in years, returning to a democracy after a coup that overthrew the former government. And there is Diwali, the Festival of Lights. This year the main day for the festival is Oct 23rd.

While this is mainly a religious celebration, there is plenty of room for a more secular interpretation if you aren't Hindu. For Hindus, the festival celebrates the return of Rama with his wife Sita, after years of banishment and Sita being kidnapped. For other religions it has significance too. Mainly it is a celebration of the victory of good over evil, light over darkness.

The main festival day occurs on a night with a new moon (so it's dark and you can't see it). It is much like New Years for America. There are lights, fireworks, yummy sweets, rangoli decorations, visiting family and friends, and general merriment.

Here is a lovely article from the Fiji Times about the significance of light in the celebration of Diwali in Fiji, and how it can bring us together.

Happy Diwali!

Uttar Pradesh to Help in Ancestor Search

While speaking on the radio in New Zealand, Uttar Pradesh State Minister Madhukar Jetley said their state government will soon be launching a website that could help Indians abroad gather information about their ancestors from India. Many Indians that came to Fiji in the Girmit era are believed to come from UP (my husband's family included). It seems they will be making NRI cards available to Fiji-Indians for the purpose of genealogy work.
Jetley said “Everybody will be having an opportunity to get a card, printed in their own home, through the computer, through the website in which they will be able to connect and re-connect and they will be able to join in the movement where they can go back to their roots and discover where they came from.”

- See more at: http://www.fbc.com.fj/fiji/21295/nri-card-to-track-ancestors

I'm Not Alone

A quick search around the Fiji Times, and I came across a small group of articles from the past few months about people tracing their ancestry. It looks like I'm not the only one taking an interest in family history and Fiji.

http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=251825

http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=245807

http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=246425

http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=251618

Or So The Story Goes

In my inquiries to my husband and his family for more information, I have gotten a few interesting stories, and even fewer hard facts. One of the stories is about his Grandfather.
The story goes like this...
He is born in India (around 1900), gets married and has kids. All that normal stuff. Then somewhere along the way in the (late?) 1940's he gets accused of killing someone. We don't know if he really did or not, we think not. Instead of going directly to jail, he leaves his wife and kids and goes to Fiji to work on the sugar plantations. He keeps in touch with them a little over the next few years, but contact stops after a while.
In Fiji he meets a nice young girl, gets married and has another child (1950s). Polygamist? Yup. A few years later the young mom goes crazy (certifiably) and he takes care of the child with help from friends. Then when the child is a young teen he (the dad) dies (late 1960s?). She gets raised by aunties and uncles (family friends, not blood relations).
And what of the first wife and those kids in India? It is told they immigrated to England.
So, there is a chance that we have (half) aunts, uncles and/or cousins (of various degrees of separation) living in the UK.
Or so the story goes...

Girmit Infographic

I was playing around on infogr.am and made this quick infographic about Girmitiyas in Fiji (Indian immigrant laborers)

Fiji Oral History Map

Fiji Time is a new film about the colonial times in the Fiji Islands. It follows the story of  Jean Bish, who was born in Fiji, as she tells of her history, and then returns to Fiji after many years away. It also tells conflicting stories about the British colonization of Fiji (from the points of view of the colonizers and those colonized), and the disastrous aftermath once Fiji gained independence.
Officially launching today, August 29th, is an Oral History Map. The map will be a user generated map with audio, visual and written histories from Fijians worldwide (anyone who has lived in Fiji, regardless of race).
With the Oral History Map now active, you can even submit your own story.

Find Fiji Time on Facebook or check out their blog.

Old photos of Fiji

Ok, so they aren't all that old. Maybe 15 years, but trust me, things haven't changed much in the past 50 or so years.

Microfilm

In July I ordered some microfilm for the first time, through Family Search. A week and a half later I got one, the other three were backordered. I'm not entirely sure why they don't have that kind of status on the website. I mean, a library can tell you if a book is on the shelf or checked out, why can't they do that with the film. I totally would have ordered something else in the meantime. But, I digress.
The film that came in was the Indian birth records index (from Fiji) from 1895-1929. Great! I have several names in that time period that I am looking for. Then comes the frustrating part.

#1 frustration- The first 25 years of this index is all jumbled together, not separated by year. The last 10 years is, so that was nice.

Frustration #2- Indians in Fiji in these years didn't usually have last names. So, searching for families is difficult.

Frustration #3- Because they don't have last names, the index is alphabetized by fathers first name, then mothers name, then childrens names. This may be good if I knew the fathers name, but in most cases, I didn't.

So, I went through all 263 pages of years 1895-1919 one by one, looking in the childrens column hoping to spot a name I was looking for (note, there are 86 rows on each page). Then I had to look at the year, and hope it also matched. Then I could write down all the info in a list of possible matches. I have 7 for one of the names on my list. And 3 with no matches. Argh!

On the plus side, I do have 7 possible matches, and I found some siblings for one of the known ancestors. So, hopefully soon I will get the other rolls of film and be able to find more names, and then I can order the specific rolls needed to find the actual records and not just the record numbers on the index. At least now I know what to be prepared for next time.

I also couldn't help but think how easy it would be to index these records. They were all in neat typed rows. Given the time, I could easily do it. And I would too, if the LDS church would ever digitize them and offer them up to be indexed. Maybe they will someday.

Recipe: Indo-Fijian Style Chicken Curry

When Indians came to Fiji, they naturally brought with them recipes from home. Over time these recipes took on a different flavor that reflected their new island home. Indians in Fiji don't use quite as many spices in their curry, because they just aren't as available. So, here is a family recipe for Chicken Curry made Indian-Fijian style.

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken
1 small onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 small chilies, minced (omit if you want it less spicy)
1/4 inch ginger, grated
salt to taste
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 tsp Tumeric
1/2 tsp Cumin powder or seeds
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
1/4 tsp Fenugreek seeds
1 Cinnamon stick
6 Cloves
4 Cardamom pods
2 tsp Curry powder or paste
Water as needed

Directions:
Chop chicken to bite size pieces, set aside.
In a medium size pot, heat up olive oil, add onions, seeds, and cinnamon stick.
Stir and cook for a minute, then add the minced garlic together with tumeric and curry powder/paste.
Stir and cook for a minute. Then add chicken and salt and a little water.
Stir and cover. Reduce heat to medium.
Stir every 10 minutes or so.
If the chicken sticks to the pan, add more water
Chicken should be done in 40 minutes.
Serve with rice.

Ordering Microfilm

FamilySearch and the LDS church have lots of Fijian records on microfilm. On the downside, they are not indexed or digitized yet (i.e. not searchable online). On the plus side, you can check out most of it to be sent to your nearest family history library to look through.

I have a few names and dates to start off my search, so I have ordered 4 rolls of film (2 births, 1 marriage, and a book on Indian migrants in Fiji). I hope I will be able to find the people I'm looking for and maybe enough info to need to order more film.
I hope one day they will get around to digitizing these so I won't have to order stuff and go to a library with a microfilm reader to look through it. It can be difficult to get a babysitter midday to drive to another city to sit and look through film. Oh well, I'm sure the work will be worth it in the end.

Intro

I have long been interested in genealogy. It is probably because my father is also into it. He is really the better genealogist of the two of us. But, I do love hearing the stories of my ancestors and finding missing people and even connecting with the odd 5th cousin twice removed. I always assumed I'd simply take over the work once he got too old and that would be it. But, I have found myself itching to do stuff now (why wait!). And this is where my husband enters the picture.

My husband loves his heritage, but doesn't know much about his family history. He is an Indian from the Fiji Islands. His family immigrated from India to Fiji a few generations back (one grandfather, and 3 sets of great-grandparents). The last time we visited family in Fiji I made him gather as much family history info as possible from living relatives. He even got me photographs of 2 of his grandparents birth certificates.

So, with my dad researching my family, I have decided to research my husbands. I am hoping that writing down my goals and putting things out there for all to see I may get more done (it is motivation for me). Here I will figure out how to order and view microfilm from Fiji, find ship records of their immigrations, and eventually I hope to find records in India (which is harder than it seems). Who knows we may even find living relatives in India.

snapshot of a portrait of Shyam Lal (grandfather) as a young man