The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) has offered the Tongan government a free service to digitise its family genealogical records, said Elder Aisake Tukuafu, in a statement yesterday, 20 February.

But no agreement has been reached to date between the LDS church and the Tongan Government over access to the official data for births, deaths and marriages registrations.

Elder Aisake Tukuafu said the church wants “to help preserve” the records so Tongans here and abroad can “access information about their ancestors if they wish to do so”.

The church provides the largest genealogy service in the world called FamilySearch, which offers free access to its resources. 

“The church has provided this digitisation and preservation service, free of charge, to governments around the world,” said Elder Tukuafu.

“The ownership of the records here would stay in the hands of the kingdom, the government and the people of Tonga. As is the case in other countries where we offer this service to governments, the church obeys the laws of the land including national data privacy laws.”

Official register

In the meantime, Acting Attorney General Aminiasi Kefu, said that Tonga’s “Births, Deaths, and Marriages Registration Act, Section 15 requires the Registrar General to keep the registers of births, deaths and marriages”.

“Under section 19, any person may conduct searches of the registers, and may get a copy of any certificate or any entry in the register, upon paying a fee,” he said.