Dutch term – ambtenaar

An ambtenaar is a civil servant or government employee. In civil registration records, you will often see an ambtenaar van de burgerlijke stand (clerk of the civil registration) officiating the marriage or registering the birth or death.

During your research you can encounter ambtenaren in two ways: your ancestors may have been ambtenaren themselves but they also would have dealt with ambtenaren like clerks, teachers, soldiers, police officers or town criers in their every-day lives. The records created by or about ambtenaren can be found in the archives of the government agencies they worked for.

Town crier on a bike.

Town crier, 1938. Image credits: Spaarnestad Photo

About Yvette Hoitink

Yvette Hoitink, CG®, QG™ is a professional genealogist in the Netherlands. She holds the Certified Genealogist credential from the Board for Certification of Genealogists and has a post-graduate diploma in Family and Local History from the University of Dundee. She has been doing genealogy for over 30 years and helps people from across the world find their ancestors in the Netherlands. Read about Yvette's professional genealogy services.

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