Archbishop Romulo Valles, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, received a collection of 14 million digital images from FamilySearch a genealogical service provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, during a hand over event on last week at CBCP headquarters in Intramuros.
Spanning over 400 years of history, this collection is of priceless value to the Church, researchers, historians and the Filipino people in general.
Felvir Ordinario, FamilySearch manager, highlighted that it took four decades to collect the records.
Ordinario added that through digital preservation “we can assure that the memories of these people are all preserved in the collection.”
Elder Aretemio Maligon, Area Seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints emphasized, “Our commitment to helping people connect with their ancestors is rooted in the belief that families are meant to be central to our lives and that family relationships are intended to continue beyond this life.”
Valles, in accepting the hard drives where the images were stored, said, “We are very grateful to FamilySearch and the Church of Jesus Christ for these records. I’m sure this would be a great help to us and for the coming years.”
The digital records, which include birth, marriage and death certificates, as well as parish records, decrees and inventories of Church items, were collected from different dioceses and parishes all over the country since 1970.
The oldest records, which date back in 1614, were from Binmaley, Pangasinan, while the most recent documents were from Biliran province in 2014.
FamilySearch works with governments and archives throughout the world to digitally preserve records that connects families across generations.
Preservation of records
To safeguard and conserve the records, Valles said that the CBCP would turn over the digital documents to the Archives of the University of Santo Tomas (AUST), which is equipped in storing the priceless records.
AUST Archivist Prof. Regalado Trota Jose, who also attended the event, expressed gratitude to CBCP for entrusting the precious records in their care.
According to Jose, UST has proper system and qualified personnel to handle such documents. They will also follow protocols to ensure they are compliant with data privacy laws as they make the records available to academic researchers and scholars who would need the documents in their study.
UST and FamilySearch already have a long-standing relationship, according to Ordinario and Jose. In the 1990s, FamilySearch, formerly known as the Genealogical Society of Utah, handed over microfilm records to Fr. Angel Aparicio of the UST Prefect of Libraries.
As the Philippines is prone to natural calamities, especially typhoons, records are always at risk. Hence, the need for continuous collaboration in the preservation and digitization of records.