Trace and Tell your Family's Empire Stories
Research guide
Many websites contain message boards and surname indexes of people trying to trace their Ugandan family history. These are worth looking at to see if anyone is researching the same areas as you, and you can also post messages and join mailing lists specific to your research. 'RootsWeb' gives a useful overview of what is available, as well as surname indexes.
http://lists.rootsweb.com/ind
ex/intl/UGA/AFR-UGANDA.html
For a general overview of African history and roots, use 'Ancestry.com'. This site contains access to listings of African classified newspaper adverts, which you can search by geographical region. Within the 'Notices' section you can search births, engagements, death certificates, etc. These entries are changed daily and unfortunately there are no archived entries, so it is advisable to look at them routinely to keep up-to-date. This site also enables you to search a huge number of historical records for more information.
http://www.ancestry.com/learn
/library/article.aspx?article=
dailynews
Newspapers are a great resource for tracing your ancestors, as not only will they provide you with a rich picture of life at the time, but in most cases will contain notices for births, marriages and deaths. It can be a lengthy search, but if you know dates of events then they can be a very useful and reliable resource. ABZ Newspapers has links to newspapers from around the world, although these mainly cover the most recent history.
http://www.abyznewslinks.com/
ugand.htm
There are also a number of collections which you can visit and search in person. Some of these are in Uganda.
The British Library holds private papers and manuscript collections of prominent British administrators, statesmen and military men in Africa, and it covers Uganda. The subject coverage of this collection is wide-ranging and includes historical, political and administrative themes, observations on African society, culture and traditions travellers' accounts, maps, charts and topographical drawings.
http://www.bl.uk/collections/
africanofficialuganda.html
The British Library Newspaper Collection: Colindale Avenue, London, NW9 5HE Tel: +44 (0)20 7412 7353
British Library newspaper library has an extensive holding of colonial newspapers, including Ugandan papers.
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/n
ewspapers
The 'Gazette of Uganda' holds important genealogical information that is not always found in newspapers. The Gazette is essentially a newspaper and one was published by the government of each colony. The amount of information available in the Gazette can vary according to the date and some time periods don't hold as much information as others. The Gazette may sometimes provide important genealogical information not always found in other newspapers.
Unfortunately the Gazette is not available on the web. For much of the nineteenth century, Gazettes had no contents page and are not indexed, so be prepared to spend some time looking through these records. The National Archives reference for Gazettes dating from 1908-1973 is CO 612.
Under the Republic of Uganda's National Records and Archives Act, passed in 2000, Uganda is due to begin construction of a new national records and archives centre in Kampala. Until this is complete, unfortunately tracing archive material from Uganda will be difficult.
Asians tracing family history in Uganda may find relevant records in the National Archives, Kew, or the National Archives of India or Pakistan.
The National Archives of Pakistan: Administrative Block Area Block N, Pakistan Secretariat Islamabad. Pakistan.
This may hold records relating to central government as well as various Gazetteers and public and private records relating specifically to post-1947 Pakistan. These records aren't available online, but they do have a website.
The National Archives of India: Director General of Archives, Janpath, New Delhi 110001 Telephone +91 11 23383436
The National Archives of India was established in 1891 as the Imperial Record Department. Pre-independence census records are available for the period 1871-1923. These can be useful in establishing household relationships, dates of birth and occupations for both Indian nationals and Britons born in India. Digitisation of some records is in progress but you will need to visit to view all records. The National Archives of India now has four regional offices at Bhopal, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar and Pondicherry. If you are planning to visit, call the Central Repository Regional Office, Bhopal on 0755 2660173. Full contact details for all offices are available on their website.
Browser by chapterMany Ugandans chose to come to Britain in search of a better life, in particular Ugandan Asians, who were expelled from Uganda under Idi Amin in 1972.
The National Archives, Kew holds incoming passenger lists for 1878-1960. These are records of passengers from Uganda arriving in Britain and contain the same information as the outgoing passenger lists. To search for your ancestor it is necessary to know the departing or arriving port and the year of departure. These are in record class BT 26 and they contain names, occupations, ages, UK addresses and landing port of all passengers arriving in the UK.
Another way to trace an individual family member's journey to Britain is to search for their naturalisation papers. Not everyone who came to Britain went through the naturalisation process, but some papers for those who did are held at The National Archives, Kew. However, these papers are not complete, so there is no guarantee that you will find the ones you are looking for. Records survive in several series, and some records will also include correspondence on individual naturalisations. The main series to search are C 54 for 1844-1873 and HO 334 for 1870-1987.
Some of the HO 334 records can be searched online. Although you can't view the individual record, you can see if one exists for your ancestor by searching by name and series (HO 334). If the document is dated 1922 or later and held by The National Archives it may not be available for public access, but you can request a review under the Freedom of Information Act.
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue
Records of naturalisations after 1987 are available via the Home Office Immigration and Nationality Department, and are only available to the person themselves or the next of kin. Records dating from before 1844 can be rare and complicated. The National Archives have a useful research guide which is available online.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/RdLe
aflet.asp?sLeafletID=242
