I vividly remember the first time I visited the Central Bureau for Genealogy in The Hague. I must have been about sixteen years old, and had just started doing genealogy. My mom also became interested and went with me. When we checked the catalog, we found that there was an envelope with prayer cards of people named Flooren, my grandmother's maiden name. Within minutes, we held the prayer card of Petrus Flooren, my three-times-great-grandfather. My mom and I were very excited about this find. … [Read more...]
Dutch term: testament
21 October 2013 by Leave a Comment
A testament is a last will. Most people did not have a last will and died intestate. Usually, only wealthier people had a will drawn up. Wills can be found in notarial records or in court records (before 1811 in areas that did not have notaries). … [Read more...]
Dutch term: Trouwboekje
14 October 2013 by 1 Comment
A trouwboekje is a booklet that the bride and groom were issued at the time of their marriage. It lists their names, date and place of marriage and has room to add all of their children. It was referred to often when people needed to prove their identity. Read more about marriage booklets and the implications for your research. … [Read more...]
Dutch term: getuige
7 October 2013 by Leave a Comment
The Dutch word getuige means witness. Getuigen can be found in many different types of documents, such as birth and marriage records or baptismal records. In original records and transcriptions, the word is often abbreviated to get. … [Read more...]
Dutch term: Persoonskaart
30 September 2013 by 3 Comments
A persoonskaart is a personal record card, introduced in 1939 to register who lived where. Persoonskaarten are one of the most important sources for research in the 20th century, because they are one of the few records that can be obtained within 50 years after a person's death. Read the article about Personal record cards for more information. … [Read more...]
Marriage booklets: why they are important even if you can’t find them
27 September 2013 by 9 Comments
In the third quarter of the nineteenth century, municipal authorities began to hand out "trouwboekjes" [marriage booklets] to the bride and groom at the time of their marriage. This booklet would contain the names of the spouses, date and place of their marriage, and had room for the names, birth places and birth dates of any children born to this couple. These booklets can be hard to find, as they are personal documents rather than government documents. The place to find them is in your family, … [Read more...]
Dutch term: burgemeester
23 September 2013 by Leave a Comment
The term burgemeester means 'mayor'. Before 1795, when the French occupied the Netherlands and introduced new laws, most towns had more than one mayor. These were elected officials. Since 1795, each municipality only has one mayor. Mayors are appointed by the crown. In early records of the civil registration, it is not unusual for a mayor of a small town to act as the clerk registering the births, marriages and deaths in the civil registration records. … [Read more...]
Online cemeteries – Dutch alternatives to Find a Grave
20 September 2013 by 23 Comments
Not many cemeteries in the Netherlands can be found on international websites like Find a Grave or Billion Graves. There is no Dutch equivalent for these sites, but there are several websites that provide photos of graves. … [Read more...]
Dutch term: inventaris
16 September 2013 by Leave a Comment
An inventaris is an inventory. In a genealogical context, it can have two different meanings: A finding aid or catalog of a collection, for example the inventaris of the archive of the Dutch East India Company. A call number of a file within a catalog is called an inventarisnummer (inv.nr.). An inventory of an estate of a person, usually a deceased person. … [Read more...]
My great-grandparents’ incestuous marriage
13 September 2013 by 5 Comments
When my great-grandparents Hendrik Woordes and Janna Geertruid Droppers wanted to get married in 1910, they were facing a problem. The law did not allow them to marry, since his first wife Hendrika Willemina Droppers had been the sister of Janna Geertruid. Hendrika Willemina had died in childbirth the year before, leaving Hendrik with a motherless infant. When he found her youngest sister willing to marry him and take care of the child, the only way to do that was to apply for a Royal … [Read more...]
