Poor relief in the Netherlands in the 1600s
In the 1600s, poor relief was a local affair. There was no national social security system. Larger cities had poor masters who administered a fund to support the poor residents of the city. In the countryside and smaller cities, the deacons of the protestant church had the responsibility to aid people in need. Even people […]
Dutch Genealogy News for October 2019
Here is an overview of the new sources, projects, and news about archives that were announced last month. Online sources The Historisch Centrum Overijssel published indexes of birth records of several Overijssel towns: Oldemarkt, Kuinre, Hellendoorn, Oldenzaal, and Hengelo. The indexes can be found on Open Archieven. The slave registers of Suriname for 1830-1863 are […]
Source: Emigrants to New Netherland (1650-1664)
The New York State Archives in Albany houses many colonial Dutch records. Among those records is an account book of the West India Company, which includes payments for passage to New Netherland from 1650 to 1664. This is a great source of information about New Netherland ancestors. Example: Teunis Kraij This entry for Teunis Kraij […]
Five places to find out-of-copyright books from the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, copyright expires 70 years after the author’s death in most cases. Many books published in the early 1900s and earlier are in the public domain. Here are five places where you can find these publications. Delpher Delpher is a website by the Royal Library of the Netherlands where you can find books, […]
Dutch Genealogy News for September 2019
Here is an overview of the new sources, projects, and news about archives that were announced last month. Online sources The Memories van Successie (death duties files) of Noord-Brabant are being scanned and added to the Brabants Historisch Informatie Centrum website. The first batch of scans has been uploaded. Death duties files give you an […]
Quick tip – Trace enslaved people by their owners
If you are researching enslaved people in the former Dutch colonies like Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles, you need to trace their owners. Enslaved people created few records themselves, but their owners may have created records that mention them. Here are some examples of records created by owners that may include enslaved people: Last wills, […]
Dutch term – Studiezaal
The studiezaal is the reading room. Most archives in the Netherlands have a reading room. Opening hours may vary, some smaller reading rooms are open by appointment only. Thanks to large digitization projects and scanning on demand services, visiting reading rooms in person is often not necessary anymore since most of the research can be […]
