Church Registers: some date back to mid 16th century but sustained damage and loss during WWII. Some church registers are in the local churches, some in more centralized archivium. The Family History Library has filmed few, if any, original church records, although they do have the film of the Adami collection. The Adami Collection is a transcription of some-- not all-- parish registers. It is known to sometimes show discrepencies from what is found in the actual church record. I believe the online transcription does not contain all the data in them microfilm copy.
Malta is primarily Catholic country; see Local Catholic Church and Family History: Malta for more information on obtaining those records. Unfortunately, few if any have been filmed by the LDS, so you must write to the appropriate diocese. . See also information from Gozo Diocese and Malta Diocese , Some earlier church records are in the Cathedral Museum. I could not find a web site for this, but the address is Cathedral Museum Archbishop Square, Mdina RBT 12. Tel: 454697. Fax 454055. The Hill Museum and Manuscript Library has microfilmed many of their records. Another repository of earlier records is the Archbishop's Curia in Floriana.
Census: First census 1842; next 1851 and every ten years through 1931, then 1948, 1957, 1967, 1977, 1987. The National Statistics Office takes the census, but oddly provides no information on how to get access to earlier censuses. In 1994 they were said to be open for inspection at the Public Library in Valatta (or Victoria, for the island of Gozo) and that the library would look up a specific entry "provided you could give exact address. "
General
Find out what the Family History Library has available for the nation of Malta. and it's various related places. (i.e. jurisdictions within the country).
Malta Study Center has a class on the Archives of Malta provided in an online lesson plan (click on lessons, left hand column).
The Malta Family History website contains mostly informtion about British citizens in Malta, but it also includes some native Maltese and Europeans. The site is tricky. All text is in blue, bold.... and some of it links to more complete pages. Hover over the text to see if there is a link. Also, to go from page to page you have to find the "next" link.. which isn't positioned in the same place on each page. There is a wealth of information on these pages, once you get to it!
Another site I found that had information about Malta genealogy but was difficult to navigate is Maltagenealogy.com . You will want to be sure to view is the listing of genealogical research on Maltese families. and Data I am Looking For, which contains ongoing research.
Normally I would tell you to visit the Malta WorldGenWeb site, but as of October 2007 it has little information and needs a volunteer to take it over and add data. (Want to volunteer?)
The National Archives of Malta gives a brief lesson on researching family history in Malta
Maltese Nobility
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