Netherlands Civil Registration

◄ Netherlands Homepage

Burgelijke Stand / Civil Registration
General Historical Background

The earliest vital records in the Netherlands were kept by the churches. Civil authorities began recording marriages and often also deaths of nonconformists in 1575. France annexed the country between 1795 and 1811.

On 6 January 1811 the French Imperial (Napoleon) decree served notice that by 1 March 1811 all births, marriages and deaths had to be recorded by the civil authorities of each municipality. The civil officers were made responsible for keeping vital records. Civil registration was accomplished by requiring the people to report all births, marriages, and deaths to a civil registration office [Burgerlijke Stand], located in the municipality [gemeente]. After Napoleon's defeat, the Dutch government continued the civil registration system.

In Limburg and parts of Zeeland, civil registration began as early as 1795, because they had already been conquered by France. They cover the entire population and have one year and 10 year indexes. Civil registration records are the most important source for genealogical research in the Netherlands and are easily accessible.

Geboorten / Births
The following information will usually be found in a birth entry:


 * The name of the child.
 * The birth date of the child.
 * The birth place of the child.
 * The name of the child's parents.
 * The residence of the parents
 * The age and occupation of the parents.
 * The names, ages, occupations, and residences of the witnesses.
 * The relationships of the witnesses to the child, if any.
 * It will never say if the child is legitimate or illegitimate.

If a child was born out of wedlock it will not usually mention a father, even if he is known. If the child's parents do later marry and the father acknowledge the child as his, it will mention this in the margin.At that time the last name of the child will also change from the mother's last name to the father's last name. However this does not mean that he is the biological father!. If the child is illegitimate, but the father is named, there is no reason to suspect false paternity. Church Records may be of use in these situations, but are difficult to access.

Huwelijken / Marriage
The following information will usually be found in a marriage entry:


 * The names of the bride and the groom
 * The ages, residence, birthplace and occupations of the bride and groom.
 * The date of your ancestors' marriage.
 * The names of the parents and their residence and occupation, if living.
 * Whether the bride and groom were single or widowed before the marriage.
 * The names of the witnesses, their ages, occupations, residence, and relationship to the bride or groom, if any.

The following records will usually be found in a Huwelijksbijlagen(Marriage supplement)


 * Copies of birth or baptism records of bride and groom
 * Military conscription record of groom, containing name, birthdate, and parents, and sometimes a physical description
 * Copies of death or burial records of deceased former
 * Copies of death or burial records of parents, if the marrying person is under 30(and sometimes if they are over 30)
 * In earlier years(pre 1850), if both parents are dead, and they are under 30, death or burials records of grandparents.

The following records related to marriage also exist


 * Marriage Intentions [Huwelijksaangiften] were made a few days before the first marriage proclamation. The couple were required to announce their intention to marry in the residence of both bride and groom. This allowed other community members the opportunity to raise any objections to the marriage. The intentions give the couple’s names, ages, marital statuses before the marriage, occupations, and residences. From 1811 to 1879 the records were combined with the marriage proclamations in one register. After 1879 they were placed in separate registers. They were not prepared in duplicate and are not indexed. Marriage intentions were discontinued in 1935.
 * Marriage Proclamations [Huwelijksafkondigingen], also called marriage banns, were published for two weeks in a row. They provide the couple’s names, ages, marital statuses before the marriage, occupations, and residences. They also give the names of the parents and their occupations, residences, and marital statuses. Like the marriage intentions, the proclamations were not prepared in duplicate and are not indexed. They were kept in the same register as the intentions until 1879 and were discontinued in 1935.
 * Marriage Consents [Huwelijkstoestemmingen]. Parents were normally present at the wedding and stated that they gave their consent for the couple to marry. If parents were absent, their written permission would be included with the marriage supplements. Beginning in 1913, separate registers were used to record the parents’ permission for the bride and groom to marry.

Echtscheidingen / Divorces
Divorce cases are handled by the district courts. A record of the divorce will be recorded at the back of the marriage register of the municipality where the couple lived at the time of their divorce. For large cities in later years they will be in separate registers. There is usually a note in the margin of the original marriage record. Divorces before the 20th century were uncommon.

Overlijden / Deaths
Death records are especially helpful because they may provide important information on a person’s birth, spouse, and parents. Civil death records often exist for individuals whom there are no birth or marriage records for. Deaths were usually registered within three days of the death in the municipality where the person died. If the deceased person was not a resident of that town, often a copy would be sent to that person's residence.

The following information will usually be found in a death record


 * The names of the deceased
 * The date of death.
 * The names of the deceased's parents.
 * The names of their' spouse.
 * The age of the deceased at the time of death
 * The place of their birth.
 * The occupation of the deceased.
 * The names of the witnesses, their ages, occupations, residence, and relationship if any.

Remember, married women are always recorded under their maiden surname. The informant’s name (often a relative) is also given. Information about parents, the birth date and birthplace of the deceased, and other information in a death record may be inaccurate since the person who gave the information may not have had complete information.

Children who died before the declaration of birth was made, are recorded as stillborn and are found only in the death records. This also means that when a child is recorded as stillborn it may not necessarily be true, as a birth had to be recorded within 3 days of birth. In other words, if the child died within those three days, it would most likely not be recorded in the birth records. When looking for a stillborn child you may have to look in the index under 'L' for 'Levenloos' (stillborn),

Those people who were born without a fixed surname are probably recorded under a patronymic or were "given" a surname posthumously, often based on the farm they were born at or lived at.

Overlijden/ Deaths after 1940
The Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie or cbg has records of everyone who has died since 1940.

Finding Birth, Marriage and Death records
Birth records are public and online up to 1902, 1912 or 1914 depending on place. Marriage records are public up to 1932 or 1939. Death records are public up to 1960, 1962 or 1964. Nearly all records have survived, though a very small percentage have not survived, especially in Noord-Holland. This is a general guide to finding Netherlands Civil Registration if you know the precise place.

1. See if it has been put on WieWasWie by using their page WatZitErIn. You will need to know the gemeente (municipality). For this find the place on Zoekakten and click at the top algemene info. For Friesland it might be better to use AlleFriezen since WieWasWie gives exact matches only when you search, though wildcards are accepted

2. If not on WieWasWie, check Geneaknowhow for transcriptions and family reconstructions by individuals and local historical societies.

3. Otherwise you will have to use 1 Year and 10 Year indexes. The births, marriages and deaths are generally separate. These are both available on Zoekakten.The one year indexes are located at the end of each year's records. Ten year tables are located separately. The names will be alphabetically, though sometimes only the first letter is alphabetized. It will have the date of the record, though not the act number. Only the name of the main people(child, bride and grooms, deceased) will be included.

4. Now you need to find the original image. If using WieWasWie a link may exist to the image or otherwise the first image for that year/set.

5. Otherwise use Zoekakten to find the image.

See Reading Dutch Civil Registration

If you know only a province or rough area:

1. Search WieWasWie. Try Google to see if other genealogists have found what you are looking for, then verify it yourself. 2. Zoekakten has some provncial alphabetial tables. Go to the province and click on [province] algemene

About WieWasWie
Many births, marriages and death records after 1811 have been put on WieWasWie or English Version. WieWasWie is the premier site for Netherlands genealogy, containing 110 million records as of November 2015, available free of charge.

Nearly every marriage record from 1811-1932 has been put online, as well as most death records from 1811-1962 and some births from 1811-1912.

Additional steps for marriages
Always view the Marriage supplements after you have found a marriage using Zoekakten. Note the aktenummer (act number) of the marriage record, for the supplements are arranged in order of number. On the basis of date or aktenummer (the total number for the year is often listed on Zoekakten) make a preliminary guess (e.g. if there are 1000 images, and you are looking for a June marriage, estimate around image #500). In some places the number is placed prominently in the corner of the image on a white card; otherwise use FamilySearch's new thumbnail feature to find the title pages for each marriage giving the aktenummer, groom, and number of pages (not necessarily the number of images). Finding the record you are after can be a long process, but it is worth it. As a general rule when searching, each marriage takes 5-6 images. Zoekakten and WieWasWie have began a partnership to index Marriage supplements, making them far easier to browse.

Wiki articles describing online collections are found at:


 * Netherlands, Gelderland Province Civil Registration (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Netherlands Civil Registration (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Netherlands, Zuid-Holland Province Civil Registration (FamilySearch Historical Records)