The public uses the archive for several reasons. Most people come to an archive to search for members of their family. They may want to find the birth, marriage, or death of a relative. At ABMA we have registers of birth, marriage, and death for most parishes in our diocese. These registers date back in some instances to the late 18th century. You can call the archive to ask the archivist to search for your relative’s information. Before you call it is important to have as much information about your family member to tell the archivist as the more information you give the quicker the search will be.

ABMA has other types of documents besides church registers. We also have land deeds that show lands that belong to various parishes.

We have many minutes of church organizations such as parish councils, the ACW, the GFS, and other church groups. There are many documents related to schools such as Bishop Feild College and Bishop Spencer College. ABMA has all the publications of the church such as the Diocesan Magazine, which became the Churchman, and is now Anglican Life. The SPG (Society for the Propagation of the Gospel) documents are also housed in our archive. These documents tell the history of our church in Newfoundland and Labrador.

As we are a hierarchical church, we have the papers of all the bishops of our diocese beginning with Bishop Spencer, our first bishop to our present bishop, the Rt. Rev’d Samuel Rose. Not only from bishops, but we also have papers and books written by various parish priests. We have several of the late Archdeacon Buckle’s (Archdeacon for Labrador) books about the church in Labrador.

Among our various collections, we have many hundreds of photographs of our clergy and people. Photographs of bishops, priests, church groups, church people at work in their parishes and many pictures of our various churches and communities.

At ABMA we give the care of our documents the greatest priority. As archivist, I have always preached to parish leaders how important it is to care for their documents while being used, and when they have been filled, it is mandatory to get them to the archive. There they can be preserved and catalogued. If stored incorrectly they can deteriorate quickly and then be lost forever.

The post Our Archdeacon Buckle Memorial Archive appeared first on Anglican Life.

We were driving along the lower road in Harbour Grace looking for St. Paul’s church. The rector, Fr. Nicolle, said it would be easy to find and when I saw it—I understood what he meant. There it was, solidly situated on a large green sward with a few askew headstones just in front of it. Ellen found a place to park, and we walked up the small paved walkway to the main doors of the church. 

Fr. Nicolle and Mr. Bob Noseworthy, who is a member of the parish, were there to meet us. They showed us where the documents were stored, and I was happy to see they were in a sturdy vault, and carefully arranged. We removed them, put them in boxes, and carried them to our car for the trip back to ABMA.

I was delighted that Fr. Nicolle had agreed to have the records stored in ABMA. Many of our parishes have their records stored in damp basements which are often visited by mice. Some are kept in cupboards and other unsuitable places too numerous to mention. Harbour Grace is a very old parish whose history dates to 1764. Unfortunately, there are no records from that time, as the previous churches were destroyed by fire or wind. 

The current stone church was consecrated on July 5th, 1840, by Bishop Aubrey George Spencer. The exterior reminds one of the rural churches built in England, and the surrounding grounds enhance that idea.  

Throughout its long history of over a hundred years, St. Paul’s has served the Anglican community in Harbour Grace. Amongst the documents which will be stored in ABMA are baptismal, marriage, and burial registers. These registers are legal documents and should be stored in an environmentally controlled space, as we have at ABMA. There are still too many of our churches’ records that are in danger of destruction by agents of deterioration I mentioned before.

Many Anglican parishes continue to store their records in unsafe conditions. I plead to all parishes in the three dioceses to bring their records to their diocesan archive. If there is not a diocesan archive, then the diocese should create one where these precious documents can be stored and catalogued to the benefit of the whole diocese and the public.

All the documents a church generates as it goes about its holy business belong to the diocese. They should not be held in private homes where the same dangers can befall them, or where they can be lost or at the death of the holder be cast aside. Please bring these documents to your diocesan office or diocesan archive. 

If there are volunteers in a diocese who wish to create an archive, please contact me at any of the addresses below for advice. I do not know everything, but I have worked in archives, and have contact with professional archivists who can assist.

You can contact me, Peter Chalker, diocesan archivist at:
Phone: 709-728-5796
Email:
bucklearchives@gmail.com or
archives@anglicanenl.net

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