BASSETERRE: In a race against time and decay, the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis is digitizing hundreds of thousands of birth, death, and marriage records dating back to the mid-1800s, Chief Digital Transformation Officer Nigel Carty has announced.
The civil registry digitization project, currently in an advanced stage, involves scanning documents that chronicle the lives of residents since 1850. The initiative aims to preserve the nation’s documentary heritage while transforming how citizens access vital records.
“These files have existed since the mid 1800s. So we’re talking about records that go back to as far as 1850, 1852 in fact,” Carty said during an interview on the “In Focus” program. “It’s critically important that we digitize those records.”
The urgency stems from the physical deterioration of paper records stored at the Basseterre Health Center. Over decades, documents have suffered from rotting paper and fading ink, threatening to erase irreplaceable historical information about the nation’s ancestors.
Currently, obtaining a birth certificate requires staff to manually search through piles of record books, transcribe information by hand, and sign certificates—a time-consuming process that can take considerable time depending on how far back records must be searched.
“Somebody sits down and transcribes from a book a certificate and signs that certificate having had to go through files and files and files,” Carty explained, describing the current system’s inefficiency.
Once digitization is complete, the process will be revolutionized. Office staff will be able to retrieve records instantly by entering basic information into a computer system, printing certificates at the click of a mouse rather than leafing through aging documents.
But the transformation doesn’t stop at the counter. Carty revealed that the long-term goal is to enable online applications for birth certificates and other vital documents, allowing citizens to request and receive records electronically without visiting government offices.
The digitized system also addresses security concerns. Paper documents can be easily forged, contributing to identity fraud that has plagued the national identification system. Electronic records stored in secure databases are significantly harder to reproduce fraudulently.
“Anything that is paper can be reproduced. It’s just a matter of how much skill you have in doing the reproduction,” Carty noted. “These documents are going to be electronically stored and electronically issued. Therefore, the tendency for those documents to be reproduced in a manner that allows people to fake these documents is going to be reduced.”
The civil registry system will integrate with other digital initiatives, including the planned electronic identification system and online passport applications. Rather than citizens presenting physical birth certificates, government agencies will be able to electronically retrieve information directly from the civil registry database.
“The passport office will be able to electronically interact with the civil registry to retrieve your information based on the basic information you provide,” Carty explained. “So you minimize the opportunity for people to interfere with a document, a paper document, and you go straight to the source.”
The government is also revising civil registry legislation to establish strict protocols for data access and protection, ensuring that even office staff cannot casually browse records. The new laws will clearly stipulate who can access information and under what circumstances.
With scanning already underway, the project represents a critical investment in preserving national heritage while modernizing service delivery for current and future generations of citizens.