The Żabbar Parish Archive located at the Żabbar Sanctuary Museum and its importance to social history

Abstract

Parish archives provide primary sources of information on a diversity of topics. The records held at the archival institutions, created according to canon law regulations and counter-checked by the ecclesiastical superiors, are a reliable primary source trusted by researchers and the civil authorities alike. Until the British government, civil authorities had relied on parish records to administer the Maltese islands’ population. The present civil authorities still recognise the authority of Church records and accept them in legal issues. The present author, who started volunteering at the Żabbar Parish Archive in 2012, noticed that the most queries to research in parish archives, even by historians, tend to centre on family and genealogy research. Using as a case study the Żabbar Parish Archive, this dissertation aims to show the importance of parish archives as a primary source for historical research, detailing the typical series found in it and their potential for new history. The dissertation proceeds by discussing and suggesting access methods to these archives, indexes creation, preservation aspects and digitisation processes.