Curaçao Civil Registration

How to Find the Records
Curaçao birth, marriage, and death records are indexed at WieWasWie. Once you obtain the date and act number from WieWasWie, you can browse through the digitized images on FamilySearch. See the list of image collections in Registers van de Burgerlijke Stand, 1807-2003 at this FamilySearch catalog page.

Historical Background
The Arawak and Caquetio Amerindians were the original inhabitants of Curaçao. In 1499, The Spaniards were the first Europeans to come to Curaçao. They made slaves of most of the Arawak. In 1634, the Dutch West India Company invaded the island. The Spaniards soon surrendered. The Spaniards and many of the slaves were sent to Venezuela. The Dutch then started colonize the island. From 1662 the Dutch West India Company used Curaçao as a center for the Atlantic slave trade. The Dutch abolished slavery in 1863.

Many other groups came to Curaçao, including Sephardic Jews from Dutch Brazil and the Dutch Republic, people from South America, Portuguese and Lebanese. From 1954 to 2010, Curaçao was part of the Netherlands Antilles. In 2010, Curaçao became a country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.