Roadtown, Tortola - A comprehensive collection of Caribbean Missionary records dating from 1795-1961 is now available for study and research at the Archives and Records Management Unit.

The collection includes records of British Missionary Societies Conferences, the Advisory Committee on Education in the Colonies, minutes, general correspondence, newspapers, journals and reports.

Chief Records Management Officer in the Archives and Records Management Unit Mrs. Verna Penn Moll told the Department of Information and Public Relations that the records detail information on the formation of councils, Caribbean tours and consultations, education schemes and missionary work in individual islands of the Caribbean, including Antigua and the Virgin Islands.

“This is an invaluable research collection of both local and regional significance; especially since it is the only such collection in the Caribbean.  The collection arrived in the Territory ahead of the East End Methodist Church bicentennial missionary celebrations scheduled for 2010, making the collection even more significant,” Mrs. Moll said.

“No longer will persons, who in the region are writing theses and books on the subject, or who wish to refer to the material for other educational purposes, need to travel to London at great expense to do searches: neither would they need to commission persons in the United Kingdom to carry out specific research for them at extremely high costs,” Mrs. Moll added.

The British Missionary Society transferred the original missionary records to the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, where they are currently housed for reference and study.  They are not available on the internet.  The local Archives Unit recently acquired copies of the records on microfiche, a preservation format which can be easily read, and that will last for hundreds of years.

Persons wishing to search the records are welcome to make appointments with the Archives Unit at least 24 hours in advance.

The Archives and Records Management Unit was created to lay the foundation for establishing and developing an actively functioning archives institution which is a fundamental infrastructure for the Territory’s development.