For the nineteenth and twentieth century, the civil registration is the primary genealogical resource. All the births, marriages and deaths (BMD) were recorded. Usually, only using the civil registration you can compile a 'backbone' of a pedigree that goes back to the late 1700's.

History

The civil registration was introduced in the Netherlands during the French occupation. In 1794, the French emperor Napoleon invaded the Netherlands from the south.

As early as 1795, the civil registration was introduced in some southern parts of the Netherlands such as Limburg and Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. The rest of the Netherlands followed in 1811. Early records are maintained in French.

The primary reason for the civil registration was to know which boys to draft for the military conscription. The major events in a person's life (birth, marriage and death) were registered. The civil registration records can be found at both the provincial archives and the local archives.

Before the civil registration could start, everyone had to have a fixed family name. Most people in the Netherlands already had a surname but in some regions people still called themselves after their father (patronymics) or farm (farm names). See the Geography section for more information about surnames in each of the provinces.

When the civil registration was introduced, "Registers van naamsaanneming" (registers of taking a name) were kept to record what name everyone took. Some municipalities only registered names of people that didn't previously have a surname, like Jews. Other municipalities registered the name of every inhabitant, including people who had used a surname for generations.

From then on, the births, marriages and deaths of all Dutch citizens were recorded in the civil registration. The church records, which had effectively served as a population registration up until that point, were taken to the state archives. That way, they were available as evidence of births/baptisms, marriages and deaths/burrials.

10 year indices

Starting in 1813, indices were created to disclose the information in the civil registration. Each index covers a period of 10 years. Hence the name, "tienjarentafel" or 10 year index.

For small towns, these indices are often only alphebetized by the first letter of the last name. Within that letter, the documents are arranged chronologically.

The index lists the people by name. For marriage certificates, be sure to check the bride's name as well as the groom's if you cannot find what you are looking for. A reading error is easy to make. When you find the name, it will either list the date of the record, or the year and the record number.

For birth and death records, the birth or death has to be recorded within 5 working days. This means the record date can be up to 7 days later than the actual date of birth or death. Never use the date from the index (which is the record date) but always check the original document to find out the correct date.

Last week, my friend Mary Risseeuw from Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin and I gave a presentation at the International Congress for genealogical and heraldic Sciences in Maastricht. The title was "We're all fresh and healthy. Emigration from the Netherlands to the United States in the 19th century. The slides are now available online.

I've just added a Dutch genealogy store to the site. In this store, visitors can buy books, DVDs and prints about Dutch genealogy, history and culture. I've selected publications that I think would benefit somebody researching his Dutch roots. The store is powered by Amazon. This website receives a commission for all sales, enabling this website to remain free.

'Patronymic' literally means 'father's name'. It means that someone calls himself after his father, for example a son of Jan would call himself 'Jansen'. This is similar to the English name 'Johnson'.

Census records can be a great source of information because they list all the inhabitants of a house, usually one or more families together with their domestic staff. Since 1850, the Dutch census records form a continuous registration where you can find who lived where at all times.

Groningen is a province in the North-East of the Netherlands. On the east it borders on Germany, on the west on Friesland, on the south on Drenthe and on the north on the North Sea.

The capital of Groningen is also called Groningen, sometimes called Groningen stad (Groningen city) to make the distinction clear.

The largest towns in Groningen are:

• Groningen
• Hoogezand-Sappemeer
• Veendam
• Winschoten
• Delfzijl

Jan Willem Wieberdink was born in Aalten on 4 September 1834 as a son of Garrit Jan Wieberdink and Janna Geertruid Heinen. On 2 September 1864, he married Johanna Hendrika Jentink on her 24th birthday. She was born in Aalten as wel, on 2 September 1840 and was a daughter of Arend Jan Jentink and Geziena Fukkink.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, conditions in Europe were poor. Crops were failling all over Europe and many people hardly made enough money to feed their families. For this reason, many people decided to emigrate to the United States, where farmland was plenty and people hoped they could begin a new life. In the Netherlands, some people also had religious reasons to emigrate. The had seceded from the Dutch Reformed Church and were being oppressed by the goverment. The United States offered to them not only better economic prospects, but also the chance to celebrate their religion as they saw fit.