The National Archives Agency notes that this measure is intended to ensure that researchers and the public have continuous access to parish records.
The National Archives Agency’s clarification came after researchers and users reported restricted access to the digital versions of parish registers on the FamilySearch platform.
The agency clarifies that it has not suspended or prohibited access to parish records hosted on the FamilySearch platform, nor has it sent any requests to the platform’s administrators to restrict or suspend user access.
According to the NAA, the familysearch.org website is not managed by the agency, and the current restrictions are due to a technical issue on the part of the platform’s administrator—the Genealogical Society of Utah (U.S.). Following negotiations with FamilySearch representatives, the Agency was informed that the issue will be resolved by the end of this year.
Until the Agency creates its own database, collections No. 211 “Parish Registers of Bessarabia” and No. 134 “Treasury of the Bessarabian Governorate” will only be available for study in the reading room of the National Archives Agency in Chișinău at 67B Gheorghe Asachi Street.
The National Archives Agency also reports that other digital archival collections have already been made available on its own platform, doc.arhiva.gov.md, including documents from the government of the Moldavian SSR, the “Sfatul Țării” collection, lists of victims of the Great Terror of 1937–1938 in the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, lists of deportations from 1949, as well as databases on the cases of victims of political repression during the Soviet period.
