Church Presents Digitized Records to NSO

The Family History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints presented 4,600,000 digitized records of statistical information to Director Lourdes Hufana of the National Statistics Office Civil Registry Department.

Director Hufana said,“These records will be very valuable to us and we thank you very much.”  Digitized records will make it possible for people to access records from their home computers.

The digitized records were presented by President Brent H. Nielson, First Counselor in the Philippines Area Presidency of the Church together with Elder Allen F. Packer of the Seventy and his wife; Elder Dennis C. Brimhall, Chief Executive Officer of FamilySearch International; and Manolito "Manny" Baul, Area Director for Family History.

The Church has 3.1 billion names on the FamilySearch.org website and 1.7 million searchable names are added on the Internet every day.  

Director Hufana escorted representatives of the Church to the microfilm section in their office for them  to see firsthand how the records are searched manually. She also directed them to the location where floor to ceiling shelves containing rolls of microfilm data filled the entire room.  The files included birth, marriage and death records from 1944 to 1994 for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.  All others remain in national archives which includes records before 1944.

The National Statistics Office keeps copies of all statistical records for the entire Philippines. They receive hard copies of all births from the different cities and municipalities.  In addition, they also keep statistical records including marriages, adoptions and deaths. Records of Filipinos who were born abroad are also recorded in the foreign registry from the Department of Foreign Affairs and are submitted to the NSO.

In the past, the process of searching through records required three shifts of employees daily for 24 hours. With the records digitized, information will be available at their fingertips and additionally eliminate many man hours to process record requests.  

As of 2012, about 90% of the microfilming project  was completed with 26,000 rolls of film produced. The microfilming project with the Church actually began in 1985 and conversion of microfilm to digitize images began in 2005. Currently there are 14 million images available online at www.FamilySearch.org. The hard drives are now in the possession of NSO with more to follow as the project continues. At present, the Church is digitizing records from the Province of Albay.

FamilySearch.org is one of the most popular genealogical resources in the world. The site is sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is free and available to the public. Since launching in May 1999, more than 150 million people have visited FamilySearch.org to learn more about their family heritage.

FamilySearch’s commitment to helping people connect with their ancestors is rooted in the Mormon belief that families are meant to be central to our lives and that family relationships are intended to continue beyond this life. Because interest in family history is not limited by culture, ethnicity, or religious faith, FamilySearch’s resources are available to everyone who wants to discover more about their family and their heritage, from church records in Europe to oral histories in Africa.

As a non-profit organization, FamilySearch relies on the support of volunteers throughout the world. These volunteers help index records, provide personal assistance, and share their knowledge about genealogical research.

Here are some quick facts about FamilySearch.org:

Number of names in searchable databases: over 1 billion

Number of hits per day: over 10 million

Number of visitors per month: over 3 million

Number of pages viewed per day: over 1 million

Number of registered users: over 1 million

Number of hits since launch: over 15 billion

Number of visitors since launch: over 150 million