Sri Lanka Genealogy

Guide to Sri Lanka ancestry, family history and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Country Information
Sri Lanka is an island country in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Asia whose nearest neighbor is India. It was formerly ruled by Portugal, The Netherlands, and Great Britain. The official languages are Sinhalese and Tamil.

Getting Started
Sri Lanka (Ceylon) Online Genealogy Records Ask the Community

Sri Lanka Map
Genealogy records are kept on the local level in Sri Lanka. For more detail, see the U.N. map.

Provinces
Genealogy records are kept on the local level in Sri Lanka. Click on a place below to go to the corresponding Wiki article listing more information.

Sri Lanka is divided into eight provinces.

Note: In October 2006, the Sri Lankan Supreme Court rule voided a presidential directive merging the North and Eastern Provinces. Many have defended the merger as a prerequisite for a negotiated settlement to the ethnic conflict. A parliamentary decision on the issue is pending.

FamilySearch Resources
Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in researching your family. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1913295088907076/about
 * Facebook Communities - Facebook groups discussing genealogy research
 * Learning Center - Online genealogy courses
 * Historical Records
 * Family History Center locator map

Websites

 * BBC - Tracing your Asian roots on the Indian subcontinent
 * Ceylon Tamils is a site one can search. It is specific to Ceylon Tamil people, and the information has been entered by others.
 * The Dutch Burgher Union, featuring genealogies published in their Journal (1909 - 1997).
 * Burial records and graveyard indexes
 * Genealogy.com Forum
 * CoraWeb for India and Sri Lanka.
 * Ministry of Agriculture provides maps, annual rainfall, etc. to help determine where farmers might have lived.
 * Sri Lanka Maps, geography, and history