QC approves microfilming of city records

Plans are now being finalized for the microfilming of all civil registry records in Quezon City.

This came after the Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU) agreed to process digitized images of all marriage, death and birth certificates and other genealogical related documents registered in the city without cost to the QC government.

The filming of documents will start from the oldest available record at the QC Civil Registry Office up to the present.

To facilitate the implementation of the project, a memorandum of understanding was recently signed by Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and Manolito Baul, the Philippine representative of the GSU at the Quezon City Hall.

Under the agreement, the GSU would process and edit the films produced according to the International Micrographic Standards. A negative copy of the film will be donated by the group for free to the city government, to be represented by the civil registry office under Ramon Matabang.

The GSU, which is a non-profit educational institution funded by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has already microfilmed important family history sources in over 100 countries worldwide. Today, the Church owns the world’s largest collection of genealogical records with over three million rolls of microfilm containing billions of names, over 700,000 microfiche and more than 270,000 books of genealogical data and several unique family history databases.

After the agreement signing, the Church gifted Mayor Belmonte with a souvenir that features his family genealogy. A book about the Latter Day Saints was also presented to the Mayor during the occasion.

From 2001 to 2005, the city’s civil registry office has registered 288,124 births, close to 230,000 marriages and 190,000 deaths. — Perseus Echeminada