One of the most useful resources available to me as a researcher into Thai church history remains a set of biographical data sheets of Presbyterian missionaries prepared in the early 1950s by the Rev. Paul Eakin and contained in his papers at the Payap University Archives in Chiang Mai. If I remember correctly, Eakin was in the process of writing a history of Presbyterian missions in Thailand and compiled these data sheets partly to that end. There is no evidence that he ever actually wrote that history, unfortunately. In any event, the Payap University Archives has entered Eakin's data into a data base, which is available online (here). Only selected portions of the data has been entered, and it appears that the archives is still "in process" as not all of the entries in Eakin's files appear (as yet) in the data base. Still, it is good that this information is available more generally, and the archives is to be commended for making the effort to put it online.
Friday, May 16, 2014
Presbyterian Missionaries Biographical Data Online
One of the most useful resources available to me as a researcher into Thai church history remains a set of biographical data sheets of Presbyterian missionaries prepared in the early 1950s by the Rev. Paul Eakin and contained in his papers at the Payap University Archives in Chiang Mai. If I remember correctly, Eakin was in the process of writing a history of Presbyterian missions in Thailand and compiled these data sheets partly to that end. There is no evidence that he ever actually wrote that history, unfortunately. In any event, the Payap University Archives has entered Eakin's data into a data base, which is available online (here). Only selected portions of the data has been entered, and it appears that the archives is still "in process" as not all of the entries in Eakin's files appear (as yet) in the data base. Still, it is good that this information is available more generally, and the archives is to be commended for making the effort to put it online.
