Netherlands Civil Registration - FamilySearch Historical Records

Netherlands

What is in This Collection?
These collections include images of the records of civil births, marriages, marriage intentions, marriage proclamations, marriage supplements, deaths, and 10-year indexes. The events are recorded either totally by hand or in partially preprinted books where the information was then entered by hand. This collection of records has been preserved relatively well; however, some older records may have some physical damage. The records are generally in Dutch, Flemish, and French.

Sometimes the original record book contained one type of entry, such as births. The books may contain multiple record types, such as births, deaths, and marriages. Therefore, as you search the records, you will find a mixture of record types even though the heading mentions only one type of record initially. The heading may change as you search the specific collection to reflect the variety of records it contains. Thus, searching in marriages may lead to both marriage and divorce records. The same will be true when searching divorces.

The French emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, introduced civil registration in the Netherlands at the time of the French occupation in the late 1700s, beginning mainly in the southern provinces. In 1811, the rest of the country began implementing the recording of births, marriages, and deaths using a standard format. Two copies of the records were created; one stayed in the local registration district, and the second was sent annually to the district court. The district court created the ten-year indexes and eventually deposited the records and ten-year indexes in the provincial archives.

The civil registration serves to officially record the events of birth, marriage, and death in a person’s life. These records also serve for statistical purposes. In the earlier years, the records were also used for military drafting.

The civil registration records for the Netherlands are a reliable source for genealogical research after 1811. For events prior to March 1811, it is best to search church records.

Reading These Records
These records are written in Dutch. For help reading these records see:
 * Dutch Genealogical Word List
 * Netherlands Handwriting

Fast Start to Netherlands Civil Registration Records
To quickly start finding your family in the Dutch Civil Registration records, go to the website WieWasWie.nl. There is an English version available on the website, just click the "English" tab when you get there.

What Can These Records Tell Me?
The following information may be found in these records:

Birth records
 * Name of the child
 * Gender of the child
 * Child’s place of birth
 * Date and time of birth
 * Parents’ names, including the mother’s maiden name
 * Parents' occupations, ages, and marital status
 * Names of witnesses

Marriage records
 * Names of the bride and groom
 * Marital statuses
 * Places of birth and ages
 * Place, date, and time of the event
 * Occupations and residence
 * Parents’ names, residences, and occupations
 * Names of witnesses

Death records
 * Name of the deceased
 * Date and place of death
 * Gender and age
 * Deceased’s place of birth
 * Occupation
 * Spouse’s name and
 * Parents’ names, occupations, and residence
 * Informant's name
 * Names of witnesses

Additionally:
 * The father’s profession can lead you to other types of records such as military records.
 * The parents' birth places as well as burial places can tell you former residences and can help to establish a migration pattern for the family.
 * It is often helpful to extract the information on all children with the same parents
 * If the surname is unusual, you may want to compile birth entries for every person of the same surname and sort them into families based on the names of the parents
 * The information in birth records is usually reliable, but depends upon the reliability of the informant.
 * Earlier records may not contain as much information as the records created after the late 1800s.
 * There is also some variation in the information given from record to record.

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