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Looking for your ancestors from the Netherlands? Yvette Hoitink is a professional genealogist in the Netherlands who does research throughout the country. Read about our services, fees, and example projects or read testimonials by clients like you.

If you want to learn more about researching Dutch ancestors, make sure to read the blog.

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Map of Ouddorp

Map of the Week – Ouddorp, 1868

Between 1865-1868, Jacob Kuyper published a series of atlases with municipal maps. These show the location of all the hamlets, villages, and larger towns in the municipality, as well as the main roads and railroads. The Kuyper maps are often available at the websites of archives or via Wikimedia Commons. This week we are looking […]

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road sign

Quick tip – Beware of same-named places

Some places in the Netherlands have the same name as other places. This can cause issues during research, if you are looking for your ancestors in the wrong place. See the article about non-unique place names in the Netherlands for an overview. You can also check Van der Aa’s gazetteer to see where a place […]

Map of Holland

Map of the Week – Holland, 1659

In 1659, the famous mapmaker Joan Blaeu published his world atlas Tooneel des Aardrycks [Display of the Realm of Earth]. The archives in Leiden have made their atlas available online. This week we are looking at his map of the county of Holland. The map shows several lakes have already been turned into polders, such […]

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flooded houses

Dutch Genealogy News for October 2024

Here is an overview of the new sources, projects, and other news from the past month. Sources The De Hullu Collection at the Zeeuws Archief has been largely digitized. De. J. de Hullu made many scientific notes and transcripts, mainly regarding the history of the western part of Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. His collection is of special importance […]

Map of the Week – Connections in Utrecht, circa 1919

This map, created shortly after the end of World War I, shows the different connections in the province of Utrecht The legend identifies the different types of lines on the map: railroads tramways paved roads gravel roads provincial border dikes hills. The 1800s saw a tremendous increase in infrastructure. This map captures the rail and […]

Tip of the week

Quick tip – Access Restrictions For People Born More Than 100 Years Ago

In the Netherlands, privacy laws restrict access to records of people who may still be alive. But this often affects records of people who were born (much) earlier too. A few examples: Death records are only public after 50 years. My great-grandmother was born in 1893 but her death record only became public this year […]

Term of the week

House number 28, with faint number 36 next to it

Dutch term – Omnummeren

Omnummeren means to renumber. In the past, addresses often changed from one census/population register to the next. The houses would be omgenummerd; renumbered. This can make it difficult to find the modern locations of historical addresses. See tips for finding the address where your ancestors lived for some ideas. Some archives have omnummerlijsten (renumber lists) […]