The boundaries of a parish may be quite different from the boundaries of a municipality. A parish may be spread over multiple municipalities, or there may be multiple parishes in one municipality. Sometimes, churches in different villages formed one parish together, even though these villages may have been in different municipal jurisdictions.
Even national or provincial boundaries did not always form the boundaries of a parish. Two examples illustrate this:
- The parish of the Dutch Reformed Church of Dinxperlo included the hamlet of Suderwick in the episcopality of Münster (in modern-day Germany).
- People from the village of Epse in the municipality of Gorssel in the province of Gelderland went to the Bergkerk church in Deventer, in the province of Overijssel.
It is rare to find a map that shows the parish boundaries. The finding aid for the church records may have information about the extent of the parish, but often you will have to go through the records to get a sense of the places of residence of the parishioners.
When searching for church records, it is often worthwhile to get a geographical map to see what other towns there were in the area, to see if your ancestors may have worshipped in a church in a different municipality.
Dutch Reformed Church of Dinxperlo. Credits: Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (CC-BY-SA)
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