London, Jan. 10: Britain’s emigration records of people who arrived in Calcutta and Bombay after setting sail from UK ports between 1890 and 1960 are going online, thanks to collaboration between the National Archives and a company called findmypast.com.

The painstaking task of entering the names of an estimated 30 million passengers who left Britain for India, America, Australia, South Africa and other destinations is being done in Chennai by 120 “young but skilled” IT graduate operators.

Part of findmypast.com is ancestorsonboard.com, which lists the names of the passengers, who include “company officers, members of the Indian Civil Service, people working for the railways, engineers, missionaries, plus young women who went out to India hoping to find a match”.

According to Stephen Rigden, head of research at findmypast.com, names of Indians who were returning home after visiting England, are also included.

Rigden is trying to research Rabindranath Tagore’s movements. But he has found a journey on September 17, 1897, on the Orient Line’s Ormuz, by a “Gentleman”, Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji (Prince Ranji) who ran Nawanagar when he was not scoring centuries for Sussex and for England. On this trip he was on his way to Melbourne — how Flintoff could have done with someone like him today.

On February 5, 1898, on the P& Line’s Bengal, there was a returning passenger, “Dr T N Chatterjee”. Though he might have set himself up as “England returned” in Calcutta, alas, he travelled only second class.

The cost of searching for a passenger name is £1, while it is £2.50 to look at a scan of a passenger list.

Rigden said: “Calcutta was the final port of call for ships going to the subcontinent. After going through the Suez, the first port of call was Karachi (spelt Kurrachee in olden days), then it was Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. India was also the stopping off point if the ship was going to Australia, when it would go from Bombay to Colombo.”

The IT operators in Chennai have become experts in deciphering British handwriting since many of the names of the passengers are handwritten. Each name plus that of the ship and the destination have to be carefully entered, with supervisors present to ensure the work is done accurately, emphasised Rigden who visited Chennai in April and May last year.

It is hoped the work of digitising 1.5 million pages of passenger lists will be completed this year. Initially, ancestorsonboard.com is covering the period 1890-1899, with the rest to follow.

The records have been held at the National Archives (previously known as the Public Records Office) in Kew, west London.

“The task of digitising was put out to tender and findmypast.com won it,” said Rigden.

Between 1890 and 1899, a total of 40,680 passengers (excluding troop movements) travelled to India from the UK.

Journey’s end for many of the Britons who came to India are the cemeteries strewn across the country — such as the one in south Park Street in Calcutta. Using the online data, it should be possible to find out when they set sail from the England so many would never see again.

Anglo-Indians in India should also be able to reconstruct their family tree. The author Mala Sen (of Bandit Queen fame), for example, who now lives in London, has an English grandmother who lies in rest in Calcutta — the latter was disowned by her family for marrying an Indian.

Elaine Collins, commercial director at findmypast.com, explained: “The availability of the passenger lists from ships that left British ports in this period is an invaluable tool for people tracing relatives they believe may have left the UK during this period. The passenger records may well provide a missing link for many genealogists who have hit a brick wall in their research, as well as helping those outside of the UK to trace back to their British heritage. Now everyone can easily research their ancestors’ voyages over the Internet from the comfort of their own home, anywhere in the world.”

Dan Jones, head of business development at the National Archives, said: “We hope that digitisation will open up a hugely valuable resource for genealogists and social historians all over the world.”