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Note: A part of this article was published In 'Families', Ontario Genealogical Society, vol.26.no.2, May 1988

Introduction

Civil Registration (1811 to present)

• 1. Birth registration - The registers generated by this usually contain the names, ages, occupations and addresses of the parents, as well as the names of witnesses.
• 2. Marriage and divorce registration - These registers provide the names, ages, places of birth, occupations and residences of the bride and the groom. Besides this information you will find the names, ages (since 1907), occupations and addresses of the couple's parents and the witnesses. It is important to know that in the nineteenth century it was customary in Holland to marry in the place of residence of the bride. Each marriage document has appendices; more information on these will follow later in this article.
• 3. Death registration - These registers contain the names, ages, addresses, dates and times of death, and usually also the names of the widowed spouses. It also gives you the names, occupations, ages and addresses of the persons who registered the deceased, and sometimes the names of the parents of the deceased.
• 4. Registers of wedding announcements - In the place of residence of both the bride and the groom, registers of the announcements of the marriage are kept. A major problem in using these registers is frequently the lack of an index, which makes searching through the information time-consuming.

The forementioned registers are filed in country, township and regional archives for the period 1811-1912. The council of each township chooses the archive in which to file the civil registers, so that the researcher often has to travel through the whole country to see the registers for the different townships. Usually one can look through them for a fee. It is also possible to get photocopies of the documents. The registers mentioned under 1, 2 and 3 have been made accessible by means of the ten-year tables. These are alphabetical indices of surnames, made over ten-year periods each.

Appendices to Marriage Documents

Population Registration (1850-1920)

Besides the date of registration the population registers contain the names of all the members of a family and individuals, their sex, date of birth, place of birth, religion, marital status and occupation. Even when people emigrated, it is mentioned in the population registration. From 1920 to c. 1938 the population registers were replaced by socalled family cards, often giving the same information. From 1938 to the present a personal card is made for every person living in Holland, regardless of his or her nationality. These personal cards contain a wealth of genealogical information, such as the names, the dates and places of birth, marriage and death of the person concerned and his partner in marriage, his children, addresses, names and usually dates and places of birth of the parents etc.

At the end of every year the personal cards of deceased persons go to the Central Bureau for Genealogy (see address list) . Copies of the personal cards are available for a fee. When somebody moves abroad his card is filed at the Rijksinspectie Bevolkings- registratie (State Inspection Population Registration) in The Hague.

Church Records (c.1545-1811)

To read the DTB registers you often need a palaeographic back- ground. The handwritten papers, often in Latin, from the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are very hard to read, making research very time-consuming. Fortunately many archives are now preparing indices with all the information from these DTB-registers.

Immigration

• the Huguenots from France (sixteenth century; c. 75,000 persons)
• military people and their families from the German regiments (sixteenth to mid-nineteenth century; tens of thousands of persons)
• Flemings and Walloons from what was once called Southern Netherlands and is now Belgium left their country in the last decade of the sixteenth and early seventeenth century because of the worsened economic conditions and later because of religious conflicts (c.35,000 persons).

Colonization and Emigration

• 1. The colonization expansion of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. Many Dutch people left the Republic influenced by trading companies such as the United East Indian Company (V.O.C.), established in 1602, and the West Indian Company (W.I.C.), established in 1621. Dutch colonies were founded in the Antilles, Brazil, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, the United States, Southeast Asia and South Africa. The genealogical material concerning these colonies for a large part is filed in the "Algemeen Rijksarchief" (General State Archives). The names of the emigrants can often be found on the muster rolls of the ships.
• 2. Actually emigration from Holland only became significant in the nineteenth century. Many Dutch people left for the "New World", the United States, while a small number of them travelled to Canada, Australia and New Zealand . By the absence of Dutch population registers before 1850, there are three sources available for emigrants (then called country- movers):
  • a) Lists of country-movers.
  • b) Passenger lists of ships entering the American and other harbours.
  • c) Census lists, made up every ten years of the American population.
  A large part of the sources mentioned under a) b) and c) are available on microfiche at the Central Bureau for Genealogy.
• 3. Just before and after the Second World War many Dutch people left for Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa (South Africa was also popular for emigration at the end of the nineteenth century). The date of departure is often found in the last place residence in Holland.

Other Sources

• Church membership registers - The reformed churches kept a list of their members (important in the period before 1811).
• Civil or gate books - Everybody who wanted to establish himself in a Dutch city to practise a trade or to have an occupation from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, had to obtain the civil rights or gate rights of that city.
• Military books - Military people were registered by company. The military books for a large part are filed in the General State Archives in The Hague.
• Juridical and notarial archives - These archives contain documents like testaments, documents of buying and selling properties, mortgages, post-divorce property splitting, authorizations, court decisions, convictions, etc. They are filed in the different archival institutions.
• Family weapons and heraldry - For more information concerning family weapons and heraldry one should ask the Central Bureau for Genealogy. The have a wealth of information about these subjects.

Summary

For the genealogist it is important to know that a copy of a large part of the DTB registers and the civil registers of Holland are filed on microfiche at the Genealogical Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.

The Central Bureau for Genealogy also has a large collection of microfiches of the above mentioned and other genealogical sources. If you want more information about archival research in Holland, you can write or E-mail me a letter stating all the information you have. I will answer your letter or give to the institution best equipped to answer your questions.

My address is:

Eric sends this update to his article