Population registers can be difficult to understand, because one page can have information about people at different times. This can be especially confusing for people who are used to dealing with census records. Here's an analogy that might help you: Census records are like snapshots, population registers are like movies. Population registers record what is going on with a family over a period of time, usually about ten years. By reading the lines from top to bottom, you will see who … [Read more...]
Case study – Using population registers to tell a story
4 April 2014 by 3 Comments
When you find enough evidence to answer your initial research questions, it is tempting to move on to another family. But you can discover a whole lot more if you make the effort to find all available records. In this case study, I will show you how you can find out more about the lives of your ancestors using information from Population Registers. Example: Maria Gommeren When I first researched my great-great-grandmother Maria Gommeren (1864-1918), I stopped looking for records once I proved … [Read more...]
Looking for census records in the Netherlands?
13 December 2013 by 4 Comments
In many countries, census records are a popular source for genealogical research. In the Netherlands, we use population registers or civil registration records instead. After the census of 1849, the government decided to keep the information up to date. These records are called population registers and show where a family lived in a certain period. Because the registers cover a longer period (usually 10 years), you can see who moved in or out, or who was born or died, which makes them much … [Read more...]
Quick tip: Use Genver to find Dutch records on Familysearch
25 September 2013 by 2 Comments
UPDATE 11 June 2014: The website Genver.nl has been discontinued, the service to find records is now available at Geneal-IX. Familysearch.org has a tremendous amount of digitized records from the Netherlands: Church records Civil registration records (births, marriages, deaths) Census records and population registers Not all records are available for all towns and finding out exactly what is available can be cumbersome if you just use the Familysearch website. … [Read more...]
Case study: subtle clues in population registers
2 July 2013 by 13 Comments
On the very first day I started doing genealogy, I found a birth record saying that my grandfather’s grandmother was born as an illegitimate child, father unknown. Three years later, her mother married and the groom acknowledged the child as his. The three-year-gap made me dismiss him as her biological father. In the 23 years since then, I’ve collected all documents I could find about this family but never found any viable candidates. Inspired by Dr. Thomas Jones' and Elizabeth Shown Mills' … [Read more...]
Population registers
13 June 2005 by 10 Comments
Population registers can be a great source of information because they list all the inhabitants of a house, usually one or more families together with their domestic staff. Since 1850, the Dutch population registers form a continuous registration where you can find who lived where at all times. They look like census records but differ in one important aspect: population registers were kept up-to-date during the period the register covers (usually ten years). If you think of the census record as … [Read more...]
