Western Australian Genealogical Society Inc.

India and South East Asia SIG (ISEA) 

During the course of our genealogical travels many of us have discovered links to India and South East Asia, either via our ancestor's involvement in the East India Company, the British Army, family migration to Australia and elsewhere, or we may just call it home, by virtue of the fact that we were born and raised there. 

Whatever your reasons, hopefully we will be able to help each other with queries and problems by drawing on our collective knowledge ... and come up with ideas and possible solutions that will assist in our endeavours.

Our outcome will be to have increased knowledge and understanding of India and South East Asia, in respect to our research interests - where our ancestors might be found, what they did, how they lived.

As a result of numerous expressions of these interests, an inaugural meeting was held on 23rd October 2010 at WAGS, with 18 attendees and 13 apologies. The group now meets once a quarter as the Western Australian Genealogical Society Inc. India and South East Asia, Special Interest Group or ISEA.  

While not specifically stated at our initial meeting it is deemed that India, refers to India as it was prior to Partition and South East Asia encompasses the sub region of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India and north of Australia. This comprises the Asian mainland countries of Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Peninsular Malaysia while the maritime section consists of Brunei, East Malaysia, East Timor, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore.

However if your roots go back to Hong Kong, Macau, etc., you are also most welcome.

We will meet quarterly and keep in contact by e-mail in between meetings. At each meeting, it is anticipated that a member of the group will be able to lead a short discussion about some aspect of their research in the region and the resources they used in their research.

As we progress it is also anticipated that we will be able to establish our own members' interests list and a list of web sites more specifically focused on Indian and South East Asian research. These will undoubtedly include the ‘big guns’ like Ancestry and Findmypast and hopefully some of the more specialised ones like FIBIS (Families In British India Society) as well as this I hope to establish a booklist of publications, that group members have found to be beneficial that may assist others in their specific research interests.