Barbadians encouraged to use Archives for more research
The Archives Department in Barbados which has a wealth of information covering a range of topics, may be somewhat under utilised, when it comes to locals and even others from abroad conducting research.
Ingrid Thompson, Chief Archivist at the Archives Department which is located in the Lazaretto Building in Black Rock, St. Michael, has noted that whilst a number of students from tertiary institutions such as the neighbouring University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus usually come to the Archives to obtain critical information for key research projects, secondary schools for example, do not utilise the wealth of information contained in the historical records at the Department, which could prove useful to them.
“Research is very important, because even to make decisions, you need to have some sort of evidence, in terms of documents and so on. So you need to do that research, you need to know what happened before and as the historians would say, you cannot plan for your future, without knowing your past,” Thompson asserted.
She added, “The Barbados Archives has records on any topic at all you can think of. You have research on sugar cane experiments, we have research on school’s education, religion, all types of topics we have here, in relation to the history of Barbados. So I think it is very important”.
“Unfortunately in the schools, you are not being taught a lot of Barbadian history and I find that some of the young persons are not really identifying with our history and that needs to change. We need to encourage persons to come and use the Archives, do research, learn about our Barbadian history and it will help us to feel as one. We are one people. We are all Barbadians and we need to know our history and our culture, when it comes to our country,” the chief archivist stated.
Thompson meanwhile noted that outside of the academic realm, the average Barbadian can come to the Archives for family history research. Outlining the process, she advised that persons however come equipped with some information that could advance the process, for better outcomes.
“The process is that if you are coming to do family history research, make sure you come with information. Question your relatives and if you have any old documents in terms of names, death dates, marriage dates and so on, bring them. You may not have the exact dates, but an approximation and when you are questioning persons, you can probably bring up an event that happened in the past, to jog their memory. For instance, you could ask them, was the person (you are searching for) alive during Hurricane Janet, were they alive during the riots, things like that to jump start the process,” she noted.
“Then when you come, we have staff in the research rooms that will assist you in terms of how to use the records. So most likely we would start from the grandparents and then we go back generation to generation. It never stops, because then you can branch out into the uncles and the aunts and so on, in relation to doing family history and it’s quite interesting. You inevitably get stuck with the family history bug, but it is important to know about your family, where they came from, what they did for a living,” Thompson said. (RSM)