Quick tip – Don’t confuse the date of the record and the event

Births and deaths are created within several days of the event. The first date that you will find in the birth record or death record is the record date. Further down in the record, you will find the actual birth or death date, which could have been up to five days earlier.

Indexes sometimes only have the record date, so make sure to always check the original record.

Marriages were recorded on the day of the marriage, so there is no difference between the date of the event and the record there.

Birth record with note in the margin

Birth record of Maria Verstraete, born 2 September 1864, recorded 4 September 1864

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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