A history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Tongan Building Program. Covers the period 1955-59 in Tonga.

The expedition of Garcia Jofre de Loaisa left Spain for the Moluccas (Maluku Islands, Indonesia) on 24 July 1525, to open up the spice trade initiated by the Magellan expedition. Of the seven ships under Loaisa originally, only four entered the Pacific - via the Strait of Magellan, on 26 May 1526. A few days later, they were separated by a storm. One ship, the Santiago, made her way to Mexico; another, the San Lesmes, was not heard of again; and the remaining two, the Santa Maria del Parral and Santa Maria de la Victoria, crossed the Pacific independently. The documents on these microfilms concern the fitting out and dispatch of the expedition, accounts of the expedition's proceedings, and claims for salaries by dependents of expedition members who died in the Moluccas or on the voyage out. Details of contents are given for each reel, however, a more comprehensive listing, including names etc., is available from the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau on request.

The original documents are arranged in bundles or 'patronatos'. The information given is a translated and edited version made by the PMB from that contained on pp.78-91 of the Boletim da Filmoteca Ultramarina Portuguesa, No.32, Lisbon 1966. Patronato 37, Documents 11-33: Doc.11: Madrid, 3 April 1525 - remarks on Loaysa's men by Council of the Indies. Doc.12: Toledo, 13 May 1525 and Santo Domingo, 10 May 1538 - royal letters; orders and instructions. Doc.13: Instructions to royal officers (who were also members of royal treasury - factors, accountants etc.). Doc.14: Madrid, 5 April 1525; Instructions to Hernando de Bustamente. Doc.15: Madrid, 5 April 1525; Instructions to Diego Ortiz. Doc.16: Toledo, 13 May 1525; Instructions to Diego de Covarrubias. Doc.17: Contributions to expedition, names, amounts. Doc.18: Madrid, 5 April 1525 - Appointment of Alonso de Tejada. Doc.19: Undated account of voyage. Doc.20: 13 July 1526 and 31 July 1526; Will and inventory. Doc.21: 18 September 1526, 2 financial docs.Doc.22: 4 June 1527, Account of San Gabriel. Doc.23: 17 February 1528 petition for salaries. Doc.24: Tidore, 11 June 1528 - account of voyage by Hernando de la Torre. Doc.25: Madrid, 5 November 1529 - Royal decree re payment. Doc.26: Tidore, 28 October 1528 - Account of relations between fleet and Portuguese in Moluccas. Doc.27: Cadiz, 10 May 1529 - Account of expedition by Don Rodrigo de Acuna. Doc.28: Toledo, 29 January 1529 - Royal decree re Moluccas. Doc.29: n.d. - Law suit re salary. Doc.30: Palencia, 17 September 1534 - Declaration by sailor of the Santa Maria de la Victoria. Doc.31: n.d. - Account of voyage and events in Moluccas. Doc.32: 1535 - Account of several survivors of expedition describing how their diaries, books, maps etc. were confiscated on arrival in Lisbon. Doc.33: Valladolid, 25 October 1536 - Declaration by a Greek sailor, Francisco de Paris, on events of the voyage.

Eli Bell was a missionary to Hawaii for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The journal covers Bell's career in Hawaii (Hawaiian Islands) during 1854 - 1860.

These documents originally formed part of the archives of the Samoan District Committee and later Samoan District Council of the London Missionary Society, and were formerly held at Malua, Western Samoa. The Samoan District Committee was replaced by the Council in 1928.

Letters from LMS missionaries in Samoa to the LMS agent in Sydney, Australia.

These documents originally formed part of the archives of the Samoan District Committee and later Samoan District Council of the London Missionary Society, and were formerly held at Malua, Western Samoa. The Samoan District Committee was replaced by the Council in 1928.

Letters to the London Missionary Society in London from LMS missionaries in Samoa.

Captain William L. Hudson was commander of the US ship Peacock, one of the vessels of the United States Exploring Expedition to the Pacific, 1838-42, commanded by Commodore Charles Wilkes. He later transferred his flag to the Porpoise.

The journal begins when the expedition was en route from Fiji to Honolulu, and gives an account of the PEACOCK's visits to the Hawaiian Islands, Oregon, Southern California, the Line, Phoenix and Tokelau Islands, Samoa, the Ellice and Gilbert Islands (Tuvalu and Kiribati), and the wreck of the PEACOCK at the mouth of the Columbia River on the west coast of North America. After Hudson had transferred his flag to the USS PORPOISE, he crossed the Pacific to the Philippines, Sooloo Islands and Singapore. (The journal is a continuation of that filmed as PMB 146, which covers the Expedition's activities from 20 August 1838 to 8 August 1840)

Achille Ballière (1840-1905) was deported from France in 1873 to New Caledonia. Written in French, in a minute hand, Ballière’s journal begins on 1 January 1873 when he left the Citadelle de St Martin de Re, a place of detention on an island near Rochefort in the Bay of Biscay. Ballière sailed from Rochefort in the ship Orne and touched at Quiberon, Brest, Dakar, Melbourne and Noumea before reaching the Isle of Pines on 9 May 1873, where he lived for several months. Ballière escaped to Australia with several others in March 1874. He wrote about his experiences in two books: Un voyage de circumnavigation: histoire de la déportation par un des évadés de Noumea, illustrations by G. Save, London, Henry S. King, 1875; and La déportation de 1871: souvenirs d'un évadé de Nouméa, Paris, G. Charpentier et Cie, 1889.

Sister Margaret, daughter of the headmaster of Clifton College, an Anglican college in Bristol, was born in 1887. She was educated at St Andrews in Scotland; at a school run by Mrs Leonard Huxley at Priors Field, Godalming; and at Cambridge University. After a period of uncertainty, Sister Margaret became an Anglican nun. She taught at a school in South Africa for seven years and was later a novice mistress in India. In 1929 she went to the Solomon Islands as a teaching sister for the Melanesian Mission. In 1942 she transferred to the Melanesian Mission school at Torgil, Aoba Island, New Hebrides (Amber, Vanuatu). After furlough in England in 1948, Sister Margaret became a member of the Roman Catholic Church and served a further term in the Solomon Islands. In 1966 she went to live in New Zealand/Aotearoa.

Under the 1926 Marriage and Registration Act the Chief Justice is also the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, and the Registrar of the Supreme Court is the sub-registrar for the districts of Tongatapu and 'Eua. In other districts the local magistrate is the sub-registrar. A centralized registry combined with a sub-registry for the islands of Tongatapu and 'Eua has been created in the one office in Nuku'alofa under the Registrar of the Supreme Court. He is assisted by an executive officer (vital statistics).

• Tongatapu, Births & deaths registers,1867-1888, Births registers, 1888-1907, Deaths registers, 1888-1906, Births by villages, 1892-1900, Deaths by villages, 1906-1931
• Vava'u, Births registers, 1872-1915, Births registers, 1888-1918
• Niuafo'ou, Births registers, 1885-1973
• Niua'topu Tapu, Births registers, 1895-1926

See reel list for further details.