Dutch term – Oorkonde

An oorkonde is a charter; a record with seals hanging from the bottom. In the Middle Ages, most transactions went unrecorded, but the ones that were, were recorded in charters.

Oorkondes are usually written on vellum or parchment, made from animal skin. With the invention of paper made from rags, charters went out of style although they continued to be used for special occasions, like nobility titles are records of abdication.

Charter with seals hanging from the bottom, some missing

Agreement regarding the murder of Floris V, count of Holland, 1299.1

You can find medieval charters in the archives of old towns and convents. Many of the early ones are in Latin. The oldest charter in the Netherlands dates to 950 and is kept at the Regionaal Historisch Centrum Limburg.

Charters available online

Several provinces have created oorkondenboeken (charter books), where the oldest charters of the province have been transcribed or abstracted and translated to Dutch. Most of these were originally published as a book, but are now available online. All of these websites are in Dutch.


Sources

  1. Agreement regarding the murder of Floris V, charter, call number 8.1, 17 October 1299; Graven van Holland [Counts of Holland], record group 3.01.01; Nationaal Archief, The Hague, the Netherlands; online finding aid and digital image, gahetNA (http://www.gahetna.nl : accessed 26 March 2015).
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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