Oct 21 - Records Of Wartime Evacuation Go Online
In line with the policy of the Government to increase the digitisation of the archives, more than 13,000 records pertaining to the wartime evacuation of civilians have now been placed on-line.
The system will allow users to check the surnames of their relatives from an alphabetic drop-list provided or to type this directly into a box. This will retrieve the name and address of each evacuee, the date of embarkation, the destination, the vessel of embarkation as well as a photograph of the ship in question.
The application will also display the number of people with the same surname and provide a summary box on the opening page.
There are now just short of 200,000 entries in the Archon database which has been prepared by Archivist Anthony Pitaluga. The Archon is the Gibraltar National Archives collections database management system.
The list can be reached through the National Archives website on www.nationalarchives.gi under the “Evacuation” menu item.
Commenting on the new initiative, the Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia said:
“The Government would like to thank Mr Pitaluga for his work in this regard which also gives effect to Government policy on digitisation. Next year is the 75th anniversary of the wartime evacuation of civilians and it is therefore very timely that this application is now available on-line. It has incalculable historical value that these records are now open both for serious research and also for any individual who may simply want to learn more about their friends and family at the touch of a button. This is another important step forward is opening up the contents of the Archives to the general public.”
