As from March 2015, the National Archives came into possession of the Agricultural land registry records also known as the Reġistri tal-Kotba tar-Raba’ spanning between 1944 and 2007, which were formerly held at the Agricultural Research and Development Centre in Għammierei (Marsa). Together with these records, other relevant documents such as maps of the plots of land and files were also transferred to our Head Office.
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Archives’ Processing Unit
The sterling work done by the Records Management Unit goes hand in hand with the work performed by the Archives’ Processing Unit, which has a threefold function within the overall operation of the National Archives – the sorting, cataloguing and digitisation of the documents accessed for protection. During 2013, the Archives Processing Unit worked on reorganisation and relocation of documents, the largest collections being those of pertaining to the Customs Department and the Legal documentation dating between 1880 and 1900. The cataloguing of various fonds or collections was carried out as in previous years, concentrating mostly on passport applications with 13,500 entries, Army records (Militia/RMA) (6,123 entries) and the Governor’s Despatches between 1897 and 1910 (4,000 entries). Ongoing cataloguing projects which are still being compiled till today are being carried out by the Maltese Mr Mark Caruana who emigrated to Australia several years ago. He is building up an important database on passport applications and emigration records dating between 1900 and 1920, when a large number of Maltese left their homeland for Australia. Another on- Cabinet Secretary and Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar depositing going project is the cataloguing by the Architect Cabinet Papers (1962-1981) at the National Archives of Malta, 14 December 2013. Michael Ellul of the Despatches from and to the Secretary of State in the UK, a collection which covers nearly two centuries. The digitisation of documents in the year in question was a very busy one, including the Liber Mortuorum (1677-1849) and The Male and Female Admission Registers (1815-1920) to the Charitable Institutions, the administrative volumes of the Malta Foreign Affairs and the arrival of aircrafts pertaining to the Customs Department dating between 1946 and 1954, all projects carried out by the Genealogical Society of Utah. The oldest Tribunal in Malta, the Magna Curia Castellaniæ Acta Originalia (1545-1798) started being digitised and various indexes of the Military Personal Files are also being preserved through digitisation. Sorting, cleaning and reboxing of documents was performed on all accessed documents in 2013, the largest number of boxes being those of the Żejtun and Żurrieq Police Station Records (395 and 274 respectively). Several databases have been made accessible or upgraded for the public during 2013. These included the database relating to the correspondence between the Governors of Malta and the Colonial Office (1800-1911). A very interesting database is that of the early Maltese music, consisting of over 200 tracks of early local recordings from c.1931 of various musicians who travelled from Malta to Tunis. This project initiated by Mr Andrew Alamango in conjunction with the National Archives and the Ministry of Education focuses on the preservation of early Maltese folk and popular music. 19