Monday 19 February 2024
Insights into births, deaths, marriages, and other family events in the island's history are being digitised by Findmypast, following the signing of a contract between a group of Guernsey organisations and the UK-based family tree company.
The substantial project will see millions of Greffe records, parish church registers, Occupation identity cards and conveyances digitised over the coming months and made available to the public online on the Findmypast website.
A Steering Group comprising key stakeholders from the Priaulx Library, Island Archives, the Church of England, La Societe Guernesiaise and the Greffe was created to oversee the project and select a digitisation partner. The contract was signed with Findmypast after a thorough tender process run throughout 2023.
Findmypast will be sending two full time staff to the island, but will also be looking to recruit islanders to support with the work. They aim to create a team of six people to help carry out the project, with work set to start in the coming months.
The main focus of the work will be the key records for family history research: births, marriages and deaths recorded at the Greffe, and baptisms, marriages and burials recorded in parish church registers. Other complimentary records will also be digitised, including documents from the German Occupation and conveyancing documents. Data protection considerations will limit this to records created a certain number of years ago.
All of the scanning work will be carried out on-island at the Priaulx Library, Island Archives and Greffe.
The original records will continue to be preserved at the various archives.
The digitisation of records has been a major focus for the Priaulx Library since Chief Executive Steve Foote took up his post in 2022. He said:
"The Steering Group members are all passionate about making the Bailiwick's unique and extensive history as accessible as possible to interested parties around the globe. This project obviously has potentially enormous importance for people with Guernsey connections seeking more insight and information about relatives but it also has a wider, equally strong relevance, in helping to highlight our island on an international level."
Vikki Hart, Island Archivist, said:
"Guernsey has previously fallen behind other jurisdictions in digitising its records, and this opportunity is an excellent chance for us to catch up. It will make our records more accessible, especially to researchers not able to visit the different archives in person. These are popular records for viewing and are therefore handled frequently, so digitisation will help us to preserve the original records and make decisions around conservation. We are all very excited to be working with Findmypast on this project."
Mary McKee, UK Archives Manager at Findmypast, said:
"We're delighted to be working with our new partners to digitise this important collection and enable families across the globe to discover their Guernsey roots. These records tell the stories of thousands of people - from intimate family moments to the major events that shaped lives and communities - and we're excited to bring these to light. We're looking for some local support to help with the digitisation process, so please do get in touch if you have a passion for the island's history and broadening public access."
If you are interested in working for Findmypast as part of this project, please contact hr@maxcommunications.co.uk to express an interest.
