The president of the Emigrants Commission has appealed to the Convention of Maltese Living Abroad to collect and send in information to set up a Migration Museum.
Addressing the third convention since 1969, Mgr Philip Calleja also suggested the establishment of a Greater Malta Foundation, or a secretariat.
Over the last five years, the development of four floors of Dar l-Emigrant in Valletta has been planned for the museum, which is scheduled to open its doors in 2012, he said.
A good number of documents, photos and passports have already been collected over time - mostly unconsciously, without the intention of setting up the museum.
Mgr Calleja is trying to bridge the gap in the history between 1883 and 1945 when Maltese had already moved to Australia.
He yesterday took his audience through the "beautiful" history of Maltese immigration, of which he has hands-on experience.
Among his anecdotes was the fact that the money for Maltese migrants' passage to their new homeland, which many could not afford, came from the Malta Relief Fund, actually collected by Maltese migrants in Egypt.
Little did they know that the donations they raised were going to help people who were also seeking a future elsewhere; and little did the beneficiaries know the money was coming from those who had already found fortune overseas, Mgr Calleja pointed out.
Throughout his life, he has come across Maltese in the remotest parts of the world. About 20 per cent of Mackay, which is the size of Italy, is occupied by Maltese, he noted.
Mgr Calleja was most sur-prised when he encountered L'Asociacion Amigos de Malta on a trip to Valencia in Spain.
"I never expected an association of Maltese there, and I never expected them to take me to visit a Blessed of Maltese descent, whose grandfather was from Għaxaq."
Mgr Calleja was also honoured to discover, on a trip to Efesus in Turkey, that it was a group of Maltese living there who was entrusted to look after the "treasure" of the Sanctuary of the Madonna, where Our Lady lived.
"Turkey has a very small Catholic population out of 17 million, and it was impressive to see that the Maltese were chosen by the bishop for this task," a mesmerised Mgr Calleja said of this "blessing and great compliment".