One of the Institute's principal services is the maintenance of research registers and the provision of detailed resources for St Helena family history.

The Institute also aims to foster a greater public awareness of these islands.

St Helena is a lone mid-Atlantic island, a mere 47 square miles in size, situated at Lat. 15º 55’ S and Long. 5º 45’ W., 1200 miles west of Angola, its nearest mainland.  The island’s capital and only town is Jamestown, with a population of 1,302, out of a total population of 5,644.  There is as yet no airport. 

St Helena was discovered by the Portuguese in 1502 and has been a British colony since it was first settled by the East India Company in 1659.  It was home to the exiled Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte from 1815 until his death in 1821.  In 1834, the island became a Crown Colony and is still a British Overseas Territory. 

Ascension Island, 700 miles to the north west of St Helena, and Tristan da Cunha, 1200 miles to the south west, were occupied in 1815 and 1816.  Ascension Island’s capital is Georgetown and the island has a total population of 1,122.  Tristan da Cunha has a population of 284.

Under the provisions of the 2002 British Overseas Territories Act, the people of St Helena and Dependencies have finally been granted the right to full British citizenship and once again enjoy a right of abode in the United Kingdom.

Its people having always depended on shipping, an airport is now due to be built by 2012.