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 2022. 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 1921
- Marriage records from 1946
- Death records from 1971
These records are typically available at local or regional archives.
Legal records:
- Court records from 1946
- Police records from 1946
- Notarial records from 1946
These records are typically available at local or regional archives.
National government records:
- Minutes of the council of ministers, 1996. This includes discussions about the Dutch NATO activities in Srebrenica and the possible bail-out of Dutch aircraft builder Fokker.
- Records dealing with the aftermath of World War II, including about intelligence agencies, repatriation of Jewish survivors, and files relating to investigations into collaborators in 1946, including cleansing [“zuivering,” firing] of civil servants.
- Records relating to excesses by the Dutch Army in the former Dutch East Indies when they tried to reclaim the country after the Japanese capitulation despite Indonesia having proclaimed its independence.
- Witness statements by and about women who were held captive by the Japanese occupiers in the Dutch East Indies.
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.
Children in class, 1937. Photo: Wiel van der Randen, collection National Archives.
About Yvette Hoitink
