NAM Newsletter 19 (2015)

Issue No 19 - November 2015

The official signing over of the Archives Portal Europe portal from the project manager to the chairman of the Archives Portal Europe Foundation attended by representatives of the official founding members including Mr Etienne Ferrito representing the National Archives of Malta

APeX Malta participation in figures

4,173 photos

87,826 descriptive units

224,447 digital archived objects

Editorial from

National Archivist Charles J. Farrugia

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Another productive year has passed from the issue of the last newsletter. It was a year that saw an increase of about 350 metres of new accessions. The records that we received represent a nice mix of public and private records. Needless to say, each annual increase puts further pressure on our resources in terms of storage space and cost in managing such holdings.

Aware of this, two separate initiatives have been taken during the last year in order to solve once and for all the issue of lack of storage in our repositories. The first is a short term solution. It is important that we create spaces for the coming five years as an interim measure. This was done through investment in converting part of the ex-Lorenzo Manchè school in Floriana into a storage area. The Ministry of Education and Employment has earmarked the place and allocated it to the National Archives. Through this project it was also possible to provide storage space to the Law Courts. Thus, it will be possible for them to centralise the records dating back to 1900 and provide better facilities for the said documents.

The long term plan is for the country to invest in a state-ofthe-art national archive building. During this year the Ministry focused on this proposal, endorsed it and is providing all the logistical support to make it happen. A Task Force was set up chaired by Permanent Secretary Mr Joseph Caruana, the Chairperson of the Foundation for Tomorrow Schools Architect Samuel Formosa, the Chairperson of the National Archives Council Dr William Zammit and myself in my capacity as National Archivist. Following a number of meetings it was agreed to strengthen the task force by appointing an International Advisory Group. The group brings together expertise on archive buildings from a number of European and Mediterranean countries. Its scope will be to advice the Task Force on the various professional decisions that have to be taken. It is planned that during 2016 tangible progress will be made in the planning of this project.

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During this year a number of conservation initiatives were taken. The flagship project was the start of the holistic treatment of the Consolato del Mare holdings1. This is an extensive project. However we are proud that during this year the sponsorship consortium was put together, the project launched and the first phase of cleaning, documenting and re-boxing of the holdings is at an advanced stage.

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Outreach was also kept in focus. We hosted a visit by Conservator Dr Bassam Daghestani2 and discussed ways and means of future collaboration with his institution. New relations were also established with the Association of Archivists of São Paulo (ARQ-SP), and the Grupo de Pesquisa Acervos Fotogràficos of Brasil. These new contacts will further strengthen our internal capability of managing photographic archives. This also in view of the breakthrough MoU of last year with the Richard Ellis Archive and the Girona experts.

Related to this focus on photographic holdings, during this year we also collaborated with APS and Kevin Casha on the production of ‘The Calm Before the Storm’ photographic exhibition3. It was a way to commemorate an anniversary from our history while preserving the holdings and build bridges with other stakeholders.

We will start the year 2016 with ambitious plans. It is a time when we are working on both the physical and intellectual management of the holdings. The success we had this year in the Archives Portal Europe fills us with great courage. It drove us to think about our digital curation, take tangible steps and start providing images online. Our future target is that we arrive at a stage whereby the whole life cycle of the records is taken care of. That explains why we are working a lot on the records management in departments, the cataloguing and digital preservation and the archives building projects simultaneously.

Allow me to use this column to thank all my staff and the hundreds of people who support us in the form of Ministerial, friends’ organisation, volunteers and supporters. Without their generosity and commitment we cannot achieve much.

Works at Ospizio Joseph Scerri Following the decision taken last year to move the records previously deposited at the Rabat Secondary School to the ex-Lorenzo Manchè School in Floriana, also known as the Ospizio, various works had to be carried out on site to transform the premises into a decent repository.

As the Ospizio complex is housing more than three different entities, a steel fence was installed to cordon in the space allotted for the National Archives. All allotted rooms were cleaned from the huge amount of discarded furniture and building material that were found lying around.

All rooms were then numbered and assigned different usage as well

as classified for different archival records. The roofs of the Ospizio badly needed repairs as most of the membrane in place was either faulty or needed repair. Necessary repairs were carried out while the roof of the main hall was painted with an elastic coated layer to prevent any water seepage.

Three large wooden doors were changed to heavy duty steel ones and other apertures were secured and reinforced with steel bars. The steel beams in the main hall, and the ceiling were cleared of any rust and a coat of anti – corrosive paint was applied while the walls were renovated with a fresh layer of anti –fungal water paint. The outside walls were also plastered and painted. A new electricity installation is being carried out to ensure a safer and better lighting system. New apertures will be installed in the main hall. A tender for more than 1820 metres of shelving was published during the summer and delivery and installation of same is expected by the end of October 2015. It is envisaged that relocation of new archival acquisitions from Santo Spirito to the Ospizio can be carried out by the end of November.

Work done in Map Room Reno Caruana The main project which is being done in the Map Room consists of the processing, digitisation and editing of a very large collection (over 30,000) of architectural plans, drawings and maps from the early 1800’s till present. The idea is that all the digitised plans, drawings, maps, images, and photographs will be inputted into a database, so that they will be made available online in the near future.

The main collections which are being digitised at present are the Record Plans from the Ordnance Department and the Ex Museum Plans. When there are requests of digitised images from different collections by researchers or other entities, these are given priority over the main digitisation project

mentioned above. Such were the cases of the Agriculture Maps that now can be accessed here at the National Archives and the hundreds of digitised plans requested by the OPM. Even old photographs are digitised at high resolutions, like for example the Captain Lyon’s Photo Collection of 1870 which was recently digitised at 1200dpi.

Apart from this, researchers also come here to the Map Room (an appointment is needed) to do their research on the many different localities/sites of their studies. Copies of the digitised images that they need are given at payment on DVD. 3

The Agriculture Records Stephanie Schembri As from 6th March 2015, the National Archives of Malta Head Office in Rabat, is in possession of the Agricultural land registry records, also known as ‘Registri tal-Kotba tar-Raba’, which were formerly housed at the Agricultural Research and Development Centre in G ammieri, Marsa. The accompanying material, namely maps of the land plots, and files; arranged according to the residential town of the farmer, and listed in alphabetical order according to farmer’s surname, were also transferred from the Agriculture Directorate together with these records.

The importance of the Agricultural Directorate land registers, lies in the fact that they record all agricultural land found in Malta, including details of the farmer working the land, and the land owner/s. However, it should be noted that since the agriculture registers span from 1944 to 2007, information issued in response to requests, may not necessarily reflect the present day situation. Therefore, these records are just a historical record. Notwithstanding, their value should not be

underestimated, as they are the only available historical record for land parcels/plots, dating back to a number of years.

Since the registers are not accessible to the general public, research requests can only be carried out by members of staff of the National Archives. After the research is carried out, a certified letter recording the results of the research request is issued to the applicant, which is duly signed by the National Archivist, together with a copy of the relevant map/s to the area/s requested by the applicant, when needed.

Whoever is interested in making research from the agriculture records should fill in an application, available from the National Archives Head Office section, indicating the type of information they require, and also endorse any supporting documentation that is relevant to their request. A photocopy of the applicant’s I.D. card should always be provided, to be attached with the application.

Requests are only accepted by those who have a link to the land in question and justifiable juridical interest.

Reading Room Research Pauline Cortis The Reading Room Rabat Research is a part of our services to the public offered from three different repositories in Rabat, Mdina and Victoria, where one can access various databases to aid in the research which dates back to the early British rule.

Recently the Agriculture documents which include maps, were deposited at Santu Spirtu. This collection better known as ‘ Il-Kotba tar-Raba,’ attracted another sector of researchers who normally never used our services before. To better this sector, the third computer was introduced in the Reading room were high definition plans (scanned with a large plan scanner) are accessed by researchers.

In Rabat alone this year during the month of August, we had the highest number of researchers (130) who amongst themselves spent 310 hours viewing 232 documents. While 240 researchers contacted us by email, others contacted us by phone.

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Digitisation of the Leli Muscat Għana Collection A Project for the Preservation of National Audiovisual Heritage

Ivan Ellul In 2012 the Friends of the National Archives of Malta (FNAM) purchased a collection of over 200 music reels containing live G≈ana music that was recorded on site by Leli Muscat between the 1960s and 1980s. The digitisation of this collection was initiated last year (2014), and since then two thirds of the collection have been transferred to a digital format and stored on the National Archives digital repository. Due to the lack of funds the project had to be halted for a short period of time.

After a meeting of the FNAM with the Hon. Evarist Bartolo, Minister for Education and Employment the funding for the rest of the project has been granted and the project can now go ahead with the digitising of the rest of the collection.

Students Volunteers

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Joseph Amodio

In 2015 several Maltese and foreign students visited our Archives for their practicum in various fields ranging from administration to archival skills and data management. All students terminated their practicum successfully with most expressing the intention to re-visit our National Archives in the future. We had 4 Tourism students, 3 students from Spain, 2 from Lithuania, 1 from Italy and 1 from Germany, 11 students from Higher Secondary Giovanni Curmi, 4 St Venera Boys Secondary School, 4 from St Theresa College, 12 students from Junior College, 1 from St Agatha College, 1 from De la Salle College, 1 from St Edward College, 1 from Faculty of Media and Knowledge Science, 1 from Faculty of Law, and 4 from Faculty of Archives & Records Management. We have also voluntary workers such as Mr Anthony Bonello working on the Ghana project, Ms Mary Buttigieg working on the cropping of the Passport applications, Mr Patrick J. Micallef working on the new army database of the KOMR; we had also students Matthew Bugeja and David Mercieca worked in the Conservation Laboratory repairing documents and plans, and Ms Anthea D’Anastas worked on legal documentation documents.

We tried to give to all students a good exposure of the ongoing Archival process from cleaning, sorting and re-boxing of documents from various fonds, databases inputting from Education files to OPM files that are still a long process to terminate; and the running of the Reading Room such as the customer care research and digitisation. The university students focused on the listing and sorting of the private deposits from numerous donors.

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The 7th European Heads of Conservation Meeting held in Riga, 25 – 26 June 2015

by Mario V. Gauci The 7th European Heads of Conservation meeting was this year hosted by the National Archives of Latvia. It was held between the 25 and 26 of June in two venues, the Administration building of the National Archives and the Latvian State Historical Archive in Riga. Twenty one delegates from fifteen countries participated in this meeting. The main topic discussed this year was the impact of digitisation on the conservation and restoration processes. Other points discussed were low cost solutions for preservation and an insight into various case studies. The approach of different National Archives to digitization of holdings varies from one country to the other; this always depends on funds available and the success of each individual country to access EU funds for this purpose. It also emerged of how some National Archives give priority for conservation before digitization of documents, whilst others digitize to conserve the documents.

On my part I gave a presentation on the Consolato del Mare di Malta preservation project. Apart from a brief history on the collection and its importance for our social history; the various types of damage and different

bindings extant were also dwelt upon. The way this project came about; and how it is being financed by donations from various businesses mainly involved in the maritime industry. An insight into the different aspects of the project was also explained, namely that the project is envisaged to be divided into three phases. Phase one involves the preservation aspect of the collection, that is the cleaning, sorting, pagination and boxing of the volumes. A detailed Condition Survey will also be carried out during this phase.

During Phase two a conservation work plan will be prepared after the findings of the Conservation Survey are evaluated.

Phase three will see the implementation of the conservation interventions. A detailed description of the conservation work approach was given and how it was decided to adopt certain practises after consultation with various National European Conservation Institutions.

The meeting was concluded with a round table discussion on all aspects discussed during the two days, followed by two visits to the Department of Preventive Preservation of the Latvian National Archives and the former Riga City Council Archives.

Social outing to St Elmo On the occasion of the 25th anniversary from the enactment of the first ever Maltese legislation setting up the National Archives and on the 10th anniversary of the foundation of the National Archives of Malta agency, an agreement was reached with Heritage Malta whereby NAM staff were invited for a guided tour around the restored and newly opened Fort St Elmo. The event was the result of the mutual 6

and excellent relationship of close collaboration between NAM and Heritage Malta and took place on Sunday 11th October. The NAM staff and their families enjoyed the well organised tour. They could admire the beauty of the place set in a unique vantage point between the two harbours and the excellent work done by Heritage Malta, in transforming the site into a modern interactive museum.

Conservation Works Simon P. Dimech

Work in the Conservation laboratory has continued on a steady pace as in the previous years. The main focus of work was divided on two tracks.

The first being a long term project with the work being concentrated on the documents from the Magna Curia Castellania (MCC) with conservation treatments being done on various gatherings dating between 1715-1718 adding up to a total of 1132 foglia (end of September). On the other hand 24 conservation treatments were done on another 13 fonds and a few works coming from private collections.

One of these interventions was that carried out on 2 volumes from the Corte Capitanale namely ‘Libro Di Carcerati 1773-81’ and ‘Libro Di Carcerati 1800-03’.

The first book is particularly important since it includes the list of people held with connection to the 1775 Uprising of the Priests where Geatano Mannarino is noted as “Capo di tutti”. This manuscript had its textblock detached from the parchment cover. The spine was deformed due to the thickness of the sections and its tight sewing. Damage to folios in the form of degraded edges and tears along the edges was also present. Some slight acidic ink was also found in the textblock. Insect damage was mostly restricted to the covers; the spine and back cover were also damaged with splits and lacunae in the parchment.

The conservation treatment consisted of documentation especially of the sewing technique used, dry cleaning of the textblock using a soft brush and removal of the sewing, tests for Fe(II) and solubility in order to determine the adhesive to be used, repairs on the textblock: flattening of the edges,

reinforcing with Japanese tissue on splits and weak areas, addition of a guard on single folios, consolidation and repairs of the covers using parchment, re-sewing and reattachment of the textblock to the original cover.

The second manuscript is important for noting the imprisonment and extradition of Mikiel-Anton Vassalli. This volume had its textblock detached from the covers. Slight insect damage was also present, mostly restricted to the front and back of the volume. The spine of the textblock was pasted with animal glue and was found mostly intact but the sections had weak sewing with several internal leaves being detached. It was also found that the upper headband was present but damaged while the lower headband was missing.

The conservation treatment commenced with the documentation of the volume, then mechanical dry cleaning of the covers and textblock. The Spine of the textblock was then cleaned from the adhesive and lining paper permitting the separation of the gatherings. Following this, repairs and reinforcing of weak areas especially on the outer side of the spine areas was done using Japanese papers and tissues.

Re-sewing, together with repairs and reconstruction of headbands was also done.

Following the repairs and consolidation of the covers, the textblock was finally re-cased into its original covers.

Two solander boxes were constructed to better preserve the volumes. These two projects took an estimated time of 185 working hours to complete.

The APEx Project

Study Visit in Girona

The final dash in APEx (Archives Portal Europe – network of eXcellence) project was extended to a mini marathon.

The original project ending date was the end of March 2015. Many of the work packages had finalised their work by then, but some needed further attention. To address this, the project management team, managed to get a six month extension to the project, with the 30th September as the final day of the APEx project. The National Archives benefited greatly from the extension and put considerable effort in finalising the work that had been started. With the assistance one volunteer, Mrs. Mary Bugeja, who was working on the Magna Curia Castellania images and Ms. Stephanie Schembri who worked incessantly on passport applications, over 230,000 images were placed on the portal together with over 85,000 descriptive units. The public can now enjoy almost 50,000 passport applications most of which have digital images of the applications attached and almost 150 volumes of the Magna Curia Castellania together with a selection of photographs and other interesting items.

The second and final international conference was the closing act of this successful project with the project management delivering the portal to the foundation who shall be in charge of maintaining and further strengthening the network created in the portal.

During May 2015 Ivan Ellul, the NAM Inspector of Records attended a 3 day study visit in Girona (Spain) on digital preservation and digitisation methodology as part of the initiatives agreed upon in the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation between the National Archives of Malta, The Richard Ellis Archive (Malta) and the City Council of Girona - CentreDe Recerca I Difusio de La Imatge, that was signed during October 2014.

Etienne Ferrito

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Legal Documentation Section - Mdina Noel D’Anastas The HMML project The digitisation project of the Magna Curia Castellaniæ (1545-1798) records came to an end in June 2015 after the completion of the digitisation of the Acta Originalia documents. The project which was co-ordinated and financially supported by the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library and The Malta Study Centre of Minnesota following an agreement signed in October 2007 includes the digitisation of 1,141 volumes and the 25-volume index corresponding to over 1.5 million digital images. The digitised records and the metadata of the Magna Curia Castellaniæ can be accessed on www.hmml.org and on www.archivesportaleurope.eu The Magna Curia Castellaniæ was the main secular tribunal for the harbour area during the Order of St John in Malta. Being the largest tribunal, and having both criminal and civil jurisdiction, these records are one of the most researched sources on social history in Malta during the stay of the Knights dealing with various litigations, from domestic violence to assault and from theft and fights to the appointment of guardians for minors.

The collaboration between the National Archives and the HMML includes also the digitization of 3 metres of shelving of the Epoca Gallica records representing 33,879 images followed by the digitization of 25 boxes of miscellaneous records of various tribunals pertaining to the French Period.

Other digitization projects include the three volumes detailing the civil legal proceedings related to the Roman Inquisition in Malta, the volumes of Sacra Audientia dated 1538-1788 and the unique volume of original acts of the Tribunal Fabricae Sancti Petri de Urbe.

Work and Research at the Banca Giuratale As of January 2015, the number of scholars and researchers visiting the Legal Documentation Section at Mdina was 153 which had consulted 606 volumes.

As part of their history module, students from St Theresa College, St Venera Boys Secondary School, and Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary had the opportunity to experience a number of hours working at the Legal Documentation

Section mainly on pagination of volumes and metadata of the Magna Curia Castellaniæ records. Three university students reading for a diploma in Archives experienced part of their practicum at the Banca Giuratale conducting work on labelling the preserved boxes of the Supremo Magistrato di Giustizia records.

During summer 2015, Migle Lakstauskaite, a postuniversity student from Lithuania achieved hands-on training on the Consolato del Mare records assisting Irene Sesti on the conservation report, cleaning and pagination.

Lakstauskaite was also a helping hand in the preparation of records to be digitized.

Other activities For the seventh consecutive year, the Banca Giuratale had participated at the Medieval Mdina Festival held between 18th and 19th April 2015. For this event, the National Memory Portrait Gallery was enriched with the artistic photographic collection of Maltese tenor Paul Asciak’s brilliant carrier and other portraits of Maltese great personalities.

The music scores of Prof. Charles Camilleri which are located at the premises of the Banca Giuratale were performed locally and abroad in various concerts. The Malta Suite widely considered the islands’ musical emblem was recently released by the Valletta 2018 Foundation and the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra under the international label Naxos. The CD, entitled ‘Mediterranean’ includes two other major works by Camilleri – Piano Concerto No 1 with the participation of pianist Charlene Farrugia; and Accordion Concerto with the participation of soloist Franko Bazac. The Malta Suite was also performed by the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra at the Milan Expo on 16 July 2015 and ten days later at Valletta’s St. George’s Square.

Aria from the opera ‘Il-Fidwa tal-Bdiewa’ (The Peasants’ Ransom) was performed by soprano Miriam Cauchi with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra at the annual concert held to mark the occasion of Malta’s Independence, On 5 June 2015, Miriam Cauchi performed the Hames Kanti Popolari by Charles Camilleri and Joe Friggieri at the Teatru Manoel, a concert entitled ‘Riflessi: An evening of Maltese Art Songs’.

More private donations...

The National Archives continued with its policy of accepting private donations if they have an element of national significance. During this year other donations were accepted.

A ceremony was held to celebrate the donation of private records related to veteran radio personality Frans Said and footballer Joe Cilia. The event on 19 February 2015 was attended by the Hon Evarist Bartolo, Minister for Education and Employment.

Photo: DOI - Clifton Fenech

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(from left to right): Mgr John Azzopardi, Mr Frans Said, Mr Paul Cilia and Minister Bartolo

Digitisation at Mdina Repository Mario Camilleri As part of the digitisation service at the Banca Giuratale – Legal Documents Section at Mdina, we are also digitising other works from private collectors such as a vast collection belonging to Mr Tony Terribile who’s collection ranges from photographs taken during when the photography at the time was in black and white, ranging from local churches and chapels to niches around the Islands and the catholic and religious events that took place in Malta on a year by year basis under the name “ ajja Kattolika f’Malta”.

Furthermore, last year we’ve had a project for digitisation (pictures below) of all the original files belonging to

“Ħajja Kattolika f’Malta fl-1973” part of Tony Terribile’s Collection

St.Edward’s College re:Gov. Sec. deposited at the head office in Rabat which took some time to do having over 37Gb of data dating from 1930 to 1969 which had to be prosessed from photo shooting, cropping and then onto printing.

On the other hand, as said earlier, we offer digitisation service of copies from selected or entire files and volumes deposited at our Legal Document’s section at Mdina at the researcher’s request. This ammounts to quite a lot of data throughout the year which will then be processed from photos and then transferred onto DVD media accordingly.

Records of minutes from the 1930’s

Lady Strickland’s Trust Fund for St. Edward’s College

Launch of The Salter Album Rita Vella Brincat On 13 November 2014 the National Archives of Malta joined forces with the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Malta to launch the book 'The Salter Album: Encounters of Malta's Prisoners of War Camps 1914-20'. The event was held at the St Margaret's Boys School - Verdala Bormla.

The ceremony was actually held in the same hall where during WWI Mro Aurelio Doncich, one of the prisoners of war convened the concerts of the prisoners' orchestra.

The event included speeches by national archivist Charles Farrugia, German Ambassador Branes, Prof Kruse, Prof Frendo and Ms Marylyn Peringer and one of the students of the school who welcomed the audience.

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Gozo Anniversaries Joseph Bezzina On the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the opening of the National Archives Gozo Section, the NAG mounted an exhibition entitled Gozo Anniversaries.

The exhibition – the fourteenth to be organized by the NAG – was divided into two sections, each consisting of 25 items commemorating the 25 years of the NAG. The first section was related to various anniversaries being commemorated in Gozo during 2014: the donation of the statue of Saint Ursula, patron saint of Gozo, to the Cathedral 400 years ago; the ravaging of the bubonic plague in Xag ra-Gozo 200 years ago; the establishment of the diocese of Gozo by Pope Pius IX, 150 years ago; the passing away of Archbishop Pietro Pace, an eminent Gozitan, 100 years ago; Malta’s independence 50 years ago; and the official inauguration of the National Archives Gozo 25 years ago.

The first section consisted of documents held in Gozo or at the National Archives, Malta, related to these anniversaries. All of them were being exhibited for the first

A general view of the 2014 exhibition.

time. The second complemented the written sources by a number of engravings and paintings related to the same.

The exhibition was inaugurated by Dr Anton Refalo, Minister for Gozo, on 24 November 2014. He praised the role being played by the NAG in preserving the written heritage of Gozo.

The ceremony was also attended

by HL Mgr Mario Grech, The guests on the occasion B i s h o p of the official opening. of Gozo, who spoke on the nobility and utility of safeguarding the national memory for posterity. The exhibition received a wide coverage on local television and printed media. As a result, it was visited by a satisfactory number of visitors, both foreigners and locals. It ran until 31 December 2014.

An exhibition catalogue and a commemorative card were also published for the occasion. The catalogue with detailed information on the exhibits as well as on the NAG is the fourteenth catalogue published by the NAG; the commemorative card is the eighth in the series. A total of twenty-eight cards have been issued by the NAG. The catalogue was sponsored by HSBC-GOZO. The exhibition attracted, as usual, a considerable number of visitors and school groups to the archives. It also helps to generate awareness on the other holdings at the NAG leading to an increase in the number of researchers.

Top photo (from left to right) HL Mgr Mario Grech, bishop of Gozo; Dr Anton Refalo, Minister for Gozo; Charles Farrugia, National Archivist; John Borg; Permanent Secretary; Anton Tabone, former Minister for Gozo, founder of the NAG; and Max Farrugia, President Friends of the National Archives, at the official opening.

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The uljana Masini the digitisation and uploading process Francesco Pio Attard

During the past year, the GM- uljana Masini fond proved yet again to be the most researched of the twenty-seven at the NAG, the National Archives Gozo.

The uljana Masini – consisting of eighty-eight manuscript volumes of various sizes – enlists all the births, marriages, and deaths that took place in Gozo between 1554 and 1934. It also registers the births of Gozitans in Malta and, sometimes, even abroad. The sources for the information are the parish records. It was donated to the NAG

by Franco Masini, son of Dr Francesco Masini LL.D (1894-1962), its last owner.

The process of digitisation of the GM fond started in 2013 and proceeded at a brisk pace. The digitisation was sponsored by GSU, the Genealogical Society of Utah. The almost twentytwo thousand digitised

images of the whole set of volumes in the GM fond were cropped, resized, and organised in separate folders according to alphabetical or chronological sequences, and are at the moment being patiently uploaded on APEx – the Archives Portal of Europe, to be made available to the general public throughout the world in the near future. The relative megadata is also being inputted in the portal.

The NAG offers the service of researching family trees to members of the public at a very reasonable price. Repeated requests by the public who visits the Archives’ premises in Gozo or contacts the archives through email have shown that there is an avid interest in this particular fond, and the online service will certainly make things much easier for genealogical researchers at large.

A researcher consulting the

uljana Masini at the Gozo Section

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National Archives Awareness Week 2015 16 – 22 November 2015 Guarding the Collective Memory of the Maltese Nation National Archives Annual Public Lecture (in Maltese) “Memorji Nazzjonali Oggettivament Korretti: L-Arkivji Nazzjonali”

by His Excellency Dr Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, President Emeritus Inquisitor’s Palace, Birgu 17 November 2015 at 6.30 pm Unveiling of Commemorative Plaque commemorating the 25th Anniversary from the first Maltese legislation founding the National Archives by the Hon. Evarist Bartolo, Minister of Education and Employment 18 November 2015 Other Events during the Week: • Donation of the records of Franceso Saverio Sciortino by Gabriel Pellegrini • Donation of records by Tony Terribile • Blood Donation by the Staff and Patrons of the National Archives • School Visits • Signing of Agreement with the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library • Signing of Agreement with photographer Norman Ciancio • Signing of Agreement with the project 'The People of Malta'

HE Dr Ugo Mifsud Bonnici (Photo: Tony S. Mangion)

Detail from new sculpture by artist Joseph Scerri commemorating the event.

Opening Hours: Head Office; Hospital Street, Rabat RBT1043 Tel(+356)2145-9863 Opening hours: Mon-Tue-Wed-Fri 8.00 am - 2.00pm Thur 10.00am - 2.00pm & 3.00pm - 7.30pm(excluding Aug), Sat 8.15am -12.45pm Legal Documentation Section; Villegaignon Street, Mdina MDN1193 Tel(+356)2145-9919 Opening hours: Mon 8.00am - 2.00pm & 3.00pm - 7.30pm, Tue-Wed-Fri 8.00 am - 2.00pm, Thur 10.00am - 2.00pm, Saturday closed Gozo Section; Vajringa Street, Victoria VCT1313 Tel(+356) 2155-8833 Opening hours: Mon to Fri 7.30am - 1.30pm Sat 8.15am - 1.00pm

Published in 2015 by the National Archives of Malta The national entity responsible for archives and records management E-mail: customercare.archives@gov.mt www.nationalarchives.gov.mt Editor: Charles J. Farrugia Design & Print: Salesian Press ISSN 1605-7058