During the French occupation in the Netherlands (1795-1813), many of the official records were written in French. Here are some of the occupations you can find in the records, with their English translations. Accoucheur > Obstetrician Adjoint > Aldermen Adjoint-Maire > Interim mayor Advocat > Lawyer Agriculteur > Farmer Aide > Aide Amurier > Weapon smith Apoticaire > Apothecary Apprentif > Apprentice Armurier > Weapon … [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.
Quick tip – Atlas of Mutual Heritage
11 September 2019 by 1 Comment
The website Atlas of Mutual Heritage contains images of places associated with the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and West India Company (WIC). These include trade posts and former colonies in Africa, Asia, Australia, and North and South America. For some of these places, the VOC and WIC archives contain the oldest surviving records and images. You can navigate the website by clicking on places on the map, or by searching for place names in the top left corner. … [Read more...]
Dutch Genealogy News for August 2019
6 September 2019 by 1 Comment
Here is an overview of the new sources, projects, and news about archives that were announced last month. Online sources MyHeritage just added a new collection of Netherlands newspapers 1659-1899. These newspapers are available at Delpher. If you have a tree at MyHeritage, you will start receiving record matches for these newspapers. The Brabant Historisch Informatie Centrum has now published half a million notarial records from the north-east of Noord-Brabant online. The index and … [Read more...]
Tip: The Dutch: Emigration to North America Tour in 2020
28 August 2019 by 1 Comment
"The Dutch: Emigration to North America" is a tour for people from North America who want to come to the Netherlands to explore their Dutch roots. It is organized by the Association for the Advancement of Dutch-American Studies (AADAS) together with Witte Travel and will be held from 29 April to 11 May 2020. My friend Mary Risseeuw is one of the organizers, and I highly recommend this tour. Summary of the program The tour will travel through the Netherlands and visit several places where … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Was that lost record transcribed or indexed?
21 August 2019 by Leave a Comment
Some parts of the Netherlands, especially Zeeland, suffered heavy record loss during World War II. Church records and court records may have been lost as a result. Most civil registration records survive, because duplicates were made of those at the time of creation, and both copies were in different locations. Before World War II, some people created transcriptions or indexes for their own use. These derivative sources may survive even if the original records were lost. Archives have been … [Read more...]
Was Eleanor of Aquitaine my Ancestor? Generation 20 – Jan van Wijfliet
16 August 2019 by 10 Comments
This is the twenty-first post in a series about my possible line of descent from Eleanor of Aquitaine. In the first post, I explained how I discovered the possible line, and how I am going to verify it one generation at a time. In the last post, I proved that my sixteenth great-grandfather Willem van Wijfliet was the son of Jan van Wijfliet. Jan van Wijfliet, son of Lijsbeth van Mieren Research into Willem van Wijfliet turned up several sources that mentioned his father Jan: Feudal … [Read more...]
Dutch Genealogy News for July 2019
9 August 2019 by Leave a Comment
Here is an overview of the new sources, projects, and news about archives that were announced last month. Online sources Open Archives started a pilot to search scans by content. This works for typed records only. It uses Optical Character Recognition technology to make the records searchable. You can submit your own URLs of records hosted on Archieven.nl or that use the software by Picturae (e.g. Tilburg, West-Brabant, Zutphen, Alkmaar archives). Scans of criminal verdicts of the court … [Read more...]
Quick tip – What Interpretations Were Added to the Abstract?
8 August 2019 by Leave a Comment
I recently came across a publication that abstracted Dutch records. In the publication, the compiler had grouped a marriage record and two baptismal records together. The parents of the child in the first baptismal record, a year after the marriage, had the same names as the married couple. The name of the child in the second baptismal record matched the bride's, and that child was baptized 22 years before the marriage. By the way he grouped the records, the compiler of the abstracts implied … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Use Scanning on Demand
31 July 2019 by 2 Comments
Research in original sources can be difficult if you do not live near the repository. Good news: several archives in the Netherlands offer scanning on demand from their finding aids. They will scan the records for you. Often, they're put online for everyone to use, while other archives choose to send you the files personally. Some archives charge a fee, others provide this great service for free. See the list of archives that provide free scanning-on-demand. … [Read more...]
10 Tips for Doing On-Site Research in the Netherlands
25 July 2019 by 1 Comment
Are you planning a trip to the Netherlands and want to do some on-site research while you're here? Here are ten tips to make the most of the time you have available. 1: Check if the record is already online There is little research that requires on-site research anymore in the Netherlands. Many of the popular genealogical records have been scanned and are available online for free. Once records have been digitized, the originals are not available anymore. You can check the website Digital … [Read more...]
