The Żabbar Parish Archive and its importance to social history

Parish archives provide primary sources of information on a diversity of topics. The records held at these archival institutions, created according to Canon Law and counter-checked by the ecclesiastical superiors, are reliable primary sources trusted by researchers and the civil authorities alike.

Volunteering at the abbar Parish Archive since 2012, I had observed that the most queries to research in parish archives, even by historians, tend to centre on family and genealogy research.

Using as a case study the abbar Parish Archive, this study aims to show the importance of parish archives as a primary source for historical research, detailing the typical series found in it and their potential for new history and how these archival institutions could be managed better and made more accessible.