When we first went in we met Stuart Nicole, a senior archivist the had been working at the Jersey archives for around 20 years. He gave us a talk all about the various different things that were stored at the archive including: personal and private family records, death and marriage certificates, church records, club records, place records and government records. There are government records such as a King James I charter and a King Charles II charter.

Stuart told us about a law that had been passed called the ‘Public Records Law’ which means that the archives are allowed certain certificates and records if they are believed to be of historical or national interest. Their earliest record is from 1378, roughly 641 years old which is a charter from King Richard II. Stuart then went on to tell us various stories such as one about a prison record of a 13 year old French boy in 1912 who was banished from Jersey with his family because he was caught shoplifting, as well as one about a man in 1846 named Thomas Nicole who, when denied entry, shot the pub up and the record is relating to him having a signed pardon by Queen Victoria as he had been sentenced to death.

In relation to out investigation into WWI, we then were told of how the war cabinets decision to demilitarize the channel islands was written on the back of a envelope as well as the declarations that the islanders should surrender to the German forces. We got to see various copies of registration cards as well as various letters after the liberation to family members abroad as previously to that,we saw and were told, that on the red cross letters, you were only allowed to write 25 words. There were also old German letters that had been stolen to loved one which was emotional to read.

After that he took us us into the store rooms. Films and photos kept at 5 degrees Celsius. If bugs are found on any of the items, they must be frozen for 2 weeks. There are 3 rooms with the green room being the store for larger objects such as maps and old charters and the red room for being everything else. The final room is for the film and photos. They’re all kept in boxes.