By Ray Chickrie
Caribbean News Now contributor

GEORGETOWN, Guyana — Guyana, the former British Guiana, was a Dutch colony before it became a British possession in 1831 and, as a result, over half of Guyana’s National Archive is in Dutch. After an agreement between Guyana and the Netherlands to preserve and translate the Guyana Dutch Archive, which was in tatters, the final segment of the project was completed and handed over to Guyana two weeks ago.

To celebrate the achievement, the Dutch ambassador to Guyana, Jacob Frederiks, was in Georgetown. In addition, the head of the digitization department of the Netherlands’ National Archives, Arjan Agema, flew to Guyana to hand over the archive.

“A large portion of documents related to Dutch history is now preserved and digitized following a collaboration which began in 2016, between Guyana and the Netherlands,” a press release from the government said.

The Dutch have been interested in this project for some time and completed the digitalization and placed the Suriname National Archive online in collaboration with the government and University of Suriname about 15 years ago. However, the previous government refused to work with the Dutch on the project and made references to “Holland’s colonial ties to Suriname and the frontier dispute with Paramaribo”. The then interior minister said, “We won’t let any of our archive out of the country.”

However, better sense prevailed and, with the vast technology and experience of the Netherlands, the project commenced and is now completed.

“The repaired and preserved documents were handed over to the National Archives, October 1. Following a decision made by President David Granger, a team from the National Archives of the Netherlands took historic documents and maps, which they repaired and then made digital copies,” the government press release said.

Agema explained the documents are accessible on the Netherlands archives’ website. He noted that very soon these will be accessible on Guyana’s National Archives website.

Agema said: “We are happy now to bring back the paper material as well as the scanned material so we can now show it. Nearly 100,000 scans on the internet, which helps the researcher for history and, at the same time, the material has been conserved for a long period. It was very brittle and damaged and now it is conserved so it can be kept for years.”

As part of the partnership, 12 staffers from the National Library, Deeds Registry and the National Museum, University of Guyana Library, ministry of foreign affairs, General Registrar Office and the National Archives were trained in paper conservation techniques.

Meanwhile, the United Nations has agreed to fund the digitalization of the Chinese, Portuguese and Indian indentureship records at the archive.

https://www.caribbeannewsnow.c...yanas-dutch-archive/

Great news. The Dutch governed Guyana longer than the British who were there for only 163 years from 1803 to 1966. The Dutch laid Guyana's infrastructural foundation --- seawalls, kokers, canals, roads etc --- as well as its legal foundation, Roman-Dutch law, which the British worked with. The Dutch designed our capital, Georgetown. And more. 

Most of the records from the Dutch presence in Guyana were destroyed by the British.  What was the name of the country before it was called British Guiana?

Bibi Haniffa posted:

Most of the records from the Dutch presence in Guyana were destroyed by the British.  What was the name of the country before it was called British Guiana?

It was Dutch Colonies,Essequibo,Berbice and Demerara

http://countrystudies.us/guyana/5.htm

Django posted:

Bibi Haniffa posted:

Most of the records from the Dutch presence in Guyana were destroyed by the British.  What was the name of the country before it was called British Guiana?

It was Dutch Colonies,Essequibo,Berbice and Demerara

http://countrystudies.us/guyana/5.hh

For a brief time Pomeroon was a Dutch colony too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...olony%29?wprov=sfla1

Type Pomeroon (colony) in Wikipedia.

Families should also digitize their  historical documents, as I have done with about 500 of my India, Guyana and  Canadian family documents. This is also an easier way to distribute it to younger family members for future generations, who formed a network within our family. Paper copies can easily be damaged.

Our younger family historical network is located in India, Guyana, Canada, US, UK and mainland Europe. Information is constantly contributed and distributed, that is very important as older members pass-on.

Documents that are folded trend to tear at the location of words,  with contestant  opening and closing  and they should be stored open on a flat surface.

I discovered wrinkled documents can be smoothed with a slightly heated dry clothes iron with documents placed between clear paper. Not newspaper or paper with text or pictures.

With much sadness, some undocumented historical questions  within our family will not be answered, because people with this information are no longer around.

I was shocked to find out, when some indenture labourers passed on, some of their historical documents was thrown in the cremation fire and references for an archival search is not available, without new copies, that might not have this information.

Guyana archives seems very effective in  finding  family documents with  proper ledger references on birth certificates.      

Gilbakka posted:

Django posted:

 

Most of the records from the Dutch presence in Guyana were destroyed by the British.  What was the name of the country before it was called British Guiana?

It was Dutch Colonies,Essequibo,Berbice and Demerara

http://countrystudies.us/guyana/5.hh

For a brief time Pomeroon was a Dutch colony too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...olony%29?wprov=sfla1

Type Pomeroon (colony) in Wikipedia.

Thanks bro,found it,we learning

Pomeroon

Established in 1650,Destroyed by French Privateers 1689.

Capital:New Middleburg.

Succeeded by Essequibo Colony

It is sad to say, but the PPP Government with the exception Dr. Frank Anthony was the only one interesting digitizing Indian Indentured Records. The one Miniter who insulted Indians when they approached her digitize was Gail Texeira.He started doing this until their removal from government. Some records were destroyed during fires at the General Registrar’s office during the Colonial years.

BJ was against the project because he didn't want when one google his name his family tree would come as chammar...