Here are my favorite resources for research in the former Dutch East Indies, what is now Indonesia: Nationaal Archief The website of the National Archives of the Netherlands. Items of interest include: VOC: Dutch East India Company finding aid and images KNIL: Muster rolls of soldiers in the Royal Dutch East Indies Army. Finding aid and images. Dutch Sources on South East Asia. Research guide. Afscheid van Indie [goodbye to the Indies] searchable scans of records relating to … [Read more...]
About this website
Creating a website like this is a fun activity. There are so many options, so many choices. What do visitors want? What do I want? In this blog I will describe some of the things I encounter in developing and maintaining this website.
Volunteers wanted! Indexing Dutch East India Company Records
14 October 2020 by Leave a Comment
The records of the Dutch East India Company (1602-1795) are kept at the National Archives in The Hague. The archives span 1.25 km / 0.78 miles. Many of these records are scanned and available from the finding aid. Description of the project To make the records easily findable the National Archives is participating in an ambitious project called IJsberg [iceberg]. The project uses a range of state-of-the-art artificial intelligence technologies. I am involved in the project in a minor role, … [Read more...]
Quick Tip – Archives Damage Atlas
7 October 2020 by Leave a Comment
The Metamorfoze program, a Dutch program to preserve and digitize archives and publications, published a damage atlas of archives (PDF). The atlas was published ten years ago but the contents are still relevant today. … [Read more...]
Dutch Genealogy News for September 2020
2 October 2020 by Leave a Comment
Here is an overview of the new online sources, websites, and projects that were announced last month. Sources Scans and images of notarial records from The Hague (1861-1935) have been added to the The Hague City Archives website. The Regionaal Archief Tilburg added an index of "borgbrieven" [letters of indemnity] from various municipalities in and around Tilburg to their search engine. Learn more about borgbrieven here. The Regionaal Historisch Centrum Eindhoven has published scans … [Read more...]
Wanted! First families of Pier 21
29 September 2020 by Leave a Comment
The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 is looking for family members of the 54 passengers who first arrived at the pier, on 28 February 1928. The first ship to arrive was the S.S. Nieuw Amsterdam, which had departed from Rotterdam carrying passengers from the Netherlands, Lithuania, Germany, Romania, Russia, Yugoslavia, Finland, and Greece, who were destined for various places in Canada. The museum is now collecting stories of the families that first arrived. See the blog post of … [Read more...]
Quick Tip – Image bank at Archieven.nl
23 September 2020 by 1 Comment
The website Archieven.nl presents archival descriptions, genealogical indexes, and image collections of several archives in the Netherlands. I love searching the image collections for places where my ancestors lived. I have found maps there, old photos of the streets where my ancestors lived, even the occasional school photo though unfortunately none where I recognized an ancestor. Some archives even uploaded objects like prayer cards or business letter heads. Try searching for the … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Herfst
21 September 2020 by Leave a Comment
Herfst is the Dutch term for autumn. Autumn was the time to bring in the remaining harvests, slaughter the animals, and prepare for the upcoming winter. Many fairs were held in the autumn to sell surplus crops and proceeds. … [Read more...]
New presentation at National Archives – 15 million new scans!
14 September 2020 by 2 Comments
The National Archives of the Netherlands just rolled out a new presentation of their records. This new version of the website includes 15 million new scans. This presentation was already available in a beta version and is now the main presentation for all users of the National Archives website. … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Use Different Types of Death Records
9 September 2020 by Leave a Comment
In the period after 1811, the civil registration death records are the most reliable and informative records to use. In the period before 1811, there are different types of records that can act as substitutes for death records: Burial records kept by the churches Account books by the churches or deacons where fees are recorded for renting a pall, ringing the bells, or paying for the grave. Records of the death duties levied by civil authorities. Not all records exists in every … [Read more...]
Dutch Genealogy News for August 2020
4 September 2020 by Leave a Comment
Here are the new sources and websites that were announced last month. Sources The slave registers of Curacao (1839-1863) are now available via the Nationaal Archief website. Almost 20,000 old books were added to Delpher. This includes literary classics from the Netherlands and translations of foreign works. The town records of several places in Noord-Brabant have been scanned and are now available online. See the news announcement of the Brabants Historisch Informatie Centrum for the … [Read more...]
