Happy New Year everybody! Many records become public after 20, 25, 50, 75, or 100 years. Here is an overview of some of the records that became public as of 1 January 2024. Exceptions may exist for records that involve people that could still be alive.
Just because records are public does not mean they are immediately available online. Some archives digitize the birth, marriage, and death records immediately, others do not. Some records will be online, some may be ordered via scanning on demand, and others can only be consulted on-site in the archives.
Civil registration records
- Birth records from 1923
- Marriage records from 1948
- Death records from 1973. This will include the death record of my great-grandmother, Cornelia Francisca van den Heuvel. This is the last of my great-grandparents’ records to become public.
These records are typically available at local or regional archives and in the archives in the provincial capitals.
Legal records
- Court records from 1948
- Notarial records from 1948
- Police records from 1948
These records are typically available at local or regional archives.
National government records
- Minutes of the council of ministers, 1998.
- Records dealing with the aftermath of World War II, including repatriation of Jews, eviction of Germans, investigations of Japanese war crimes, etc.
- Royal Decrees from 1948, which includes pensions, marriage dispensations, naturalizations, etc.
- Abdication of Queen Wilhelmina in 1948, and the subsequent coronation of Queen Juliana.
Coronation of Queen Juliana, 1948. Credits: Jaap van Bilsen, collection ANEFO, Nationaal Archief (CC0)
These records are available at the National Archives in The Hague. See also the complete (Dutch) list of records that the National Archives made public.
About Yvette Hoitink
