Stories and experiences from Bermuda’s Portuguese community will be collected in a digital workshop project as the island celebrates the 175th anniversary of its first Portuguese immigrants.

The National Museum of Bermuda and the Portuguese Cultural Association of Bermuda are working with StoryCenter, a US-based non-profit organisation, to find people to take part.

Deborah Atwood, curator at the NMB, said: “Through these digital stories, personal histories of the past will intertwine with the present to help us understand the enduring legacies we carry that add to our shared history.

“No prior knowledge or skills are necessary, only the willingness to craft and share your story.”

Elena Strong, the executive director of the museum, said the workshop is a pilot project and the intention is to expand it to other groups on the island “to ensure that a diversity of stories of everyday life in Bermuda is captured into the historic record and museum archives”.

She added that more workshops will follow and they will require less of a time commitment.

Richard Ambrosio, the chairman of the Portuguese Cultural Association, said he was pleased to work with the museum to make sure that voices of the Portuguese community were captured in the project.

He added: “It is recognition of the key position that the Portuguese community has come to hold in Bermuda.

“It is a fitting project that fits naturally with NMB’s permanent exhibit Azores and Bermuda in Commissioner’s House.”

Anyone taking part will be required to attend all two-hour sessions, have a computer, internet access and be proficient in conversational English.

The workshop is limited to ten people and is open those aged 18 and older.

It will run on February 21 and 28 and March 6, 13, 20 and 27, all from 6pm to 8pm.

• To register, visit nmb.bm/portuguese-voices/. For more information e-mail, curator@nmb.bm or call 234-1333