SINGAPORE: If you have ever been curious about your family history, consider taking a trip down to the National Archives, tucked away in the heart ...
SINGAPORE: If you have ever been curious about your family history, consider taking a trip down to the National Archives, tucked away in the heart of the city just beside the Registry of Marriages.
“Some had to do with prisoners of war records. Because we did acquire some of these overseas archives prisoners-of-war records, we were able to help identify his great-grandfather’s name in one of the name lists,” she added.Ms Fiona Tay is an archivist at the National Archives of Singapore, who helps users navigate the archives.
Not only can visitors search existing records to trace their ancestry, they can also look at microfilms of old newspapers, find some of the oldest photographs of Singapore"It's always very rewarding to be able to help people find the information that they need," said Ms Tay. “She was very curious as to why this ancestor decided to take his own life. So we were like, maybe the coroners’ records would have it, and indeed it did.
“Because it was an unnatural death because he wasn’t a colonial employee, so we wouldn’t have any colonial accounts on him. He was just a business owner - and it wasn’t a very prominent business, so we were unlikely to have records.But family history research is not the only reason why people might visit the archives. Sometimes, she said, they look for old school records to apply for courses or employment.
“So okay, that’s helpful. So it’s within walkable distance, you’re not travelling by a bus or anything. We had to call up old street directories, try to identify – and then finally we managed to find that particular school location.”It’s a process of detective work, she explained, and it often means that she will end up asking questions about even the colour of the user’s school uniform to piece together information about the particular school.
She added that searching for information in the archives is not Google: “It’s not a simple case of just typing in certain keywords or questions and you’ll be able to get the answers immediately. In certain cases, you will have to go to page and pages of records." Even after approaching the Institute of Technical Education and the Ministry of Education, Ms Tay could still find no trace of her education history.
“And of course… having a real and keen interest in the arts and heritage. Because you can’t really do this work if you do not have love for it.”
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