Online records: Drenlias

The website

Drenlias is the database of the provincial archive of Drenthe.

What do they have?

BMD records (from 1811), church books (until 1811, funeral books are missing for most places), notarial archives (from 1810), inheritance tax registrations (from 1806).

Is there an English interface?

There is currently no English interface.

How do I use it?

In the navigation menu at the top, choose Zoeken 1600-1811 (Search between 1600 and 1811) to search the church books, or Zoeken na 1811 (Search after 1811) for the other databases. Select a database to search: Burgerlijke Stand (civil register), Notariële akten (notarial deeds), Successiememories (inheritance tax registers), Alle bestanden (all databases), or Kerkregisters (church registers). Fill in achternaam (surname) and voornaam (first name) and press zoeken (search).

If searching by name gives too many results, you can narrow it down by clicking Meer zoekmogelijkheden (more search options). You can search on two names, on place (gemeente), or on date range (van, tot is from, until), among others.

How much does it cost?

There is no charge for searching and browsing the information in the database.

Future plans

Indexing the funeral books (before 1811), the inheritance tax registrations, and the notarial archives is still in progress, these will be added to Drenlias on a future date.

Conclusion

The church books and notarial archives are not available on Genlias (yet), so Drenlias is a useful resource if your ancestors lived in Drenthe. They do have less information then the other provincial databases we looked at so far, though. It's a pity the website is not available in English.