Tip! The National Archives of Australia is hosting a webinar about Dutch-Australian immigration. With support from the Embassy of The Kingdom of the Netherlands, over 500 records have now been digitised and accessible online. When: Monday 7 November 2022, 10:00 am – 11:00 am AEDT. For more information and registration see Eventbrite. … [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 – Understand the Administrative History
12 October 2022 by 1 Comment
To find records, it helps to understand the administrative history of the record creators involved. A few examples from my own research: If you are researching an ancestor involved in a legal dispute, you have to know which court held jurisdiction over such cases, and where they would go for appeals, plus any changes in these jurisdictions or rights. If your ancestor was a tenant of an abbey in the sixteenth century, knowing that the abbey was dissolved during the Reformation and that … [Read more...]
Dutch Genealogy News for September 2022
7 October 2022 by Leave a Comment
Here is an overview of all the new sources, news, and projects announced last month. Sources 60,000 birth records from the Gouda region have been added to the Middle Holland Regional Archives website. The information is also available at Open Archives. Indexes of church records and notarial records for several towns in east North-Brabant have been added to the Brabants Historisch Informatie Centrum website. Several records regarding the creation of the province of Flevoland have been … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Check the surrounding records
5 October 2022 by 1 Comment
If you find your ancestor in a record, it may pay off to check the surrounding records too. Examples: Browsing the surrounding birth or baptismal records may show if your ancestor was a twin or triplet Browsing the previous and next civil registration or notarial records may show if they had the same witnesses, which suggests they were witnesses of convenience rather than people who had a personal connection to the parties. Checking the previous and next notarial records may show … [Read more...]
Quick tip – 400 Years of Dutch-American Stories
28 September 2022 by Leave a Comment
The National Archives of the Netherlands publishes a monthly series of stories about the 400 years of Dutch-American history. Past issues include stories about the name New Amsterdam, a woman named Mayken van Angola who was freed from slavery, and Dutch-American relations. … [Read more...]
Dutch Genealogy News for August 2022
9 September 2022 by Leave a Comment
Here is an overview of the new sources, websites, and other news announced last month. Sources 450,000 records from population registers 1900-1938 from Zeeland have been added to the Zeeuws Archief website. Several church, court, and notarial records from the east of Noord-Brabant have been added to the Brabants Historisch Informatie Centrum website. Transcriptions of church, tax, and population registers of Nieuw- en Sint Joosland have been added to HoGenDa. Transcriptions of … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Hear the dialects of your ancestors
7 September 2022 by 2 Comments
In the Netherlands, every region, sometimes every town, has its own particular dialect. If you want to hear how the people in your ancestors' region sounded, you can listen to audio clips at the Meertens Institute website. Click on the + before the province Click on the name of the town, which will open a pop-up with a list of recordings. Click on "Afspelen" [play] Most of the clips are anonymous. You can also click Kaart [map] to see the recordings on a map or click the Opnames … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Look at old photos
31 August 2022 by 1 Comment
Looking at old photos can tell you a lot about life in the times of your ancestors, even if the photos were not of your family. Take this photo of an unidentified Winterswijk farm in 1937, for example. Since I am related to just about everyone from Winterswijk, the child in the photo is probably a distant cousin of mine. We can see that the she is wearing long stockings above her wooden shoes, telling us the photo was probably taken in winter. She is sitting on a wooden chair with a … [Read more...]
Dutch societies with members-only databases or transcriptions
26 August 2022 by 6 Comments
Most genealogical information in the Netherlands is available free of charge. Government archives are required to make existing information available free-of-charge. This is why you will not be charged to access online records at the websites of Dutch archives. Private organizations can charge for access. Some organizations have created databases or transcriptions that are available as a member benefit. Here are some examples. Please note that the websites of these organizations are … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Frisian genealogy yearbooks online
24 August 2022 by Leave a Comment
The Genealogysk Jierboek [Genealogical Yearbook] is a publication about Frisian genealogy. The issues from 1951 to 2020 are online. The articles are in Dutch or Frisian. … [Read more...]
