Online records: Zeeuwen gezocht

The website

Zeeuwen gezocht is a genealogical research database maintained by the Zeeland Archives. See also my earlier post on Zeeuwen gezocht.

What do they have?

The website contains over five and a half million records from various sources, many of them not available on Genlias: Tax returns, emigration records, bankruptcies, criminal records, population registers, coats of arms, and many more.

Among the sources used for this database are lists of emigrants to the new world. If your ancestors emigrated from Zeeland between 1839 and 1920, you may find more information on their emigration. Take Abraham Jansen, for example. He left Oostburg in Zeeland for North America in 1846. The reason: He was sentenced to imprisonment, and emigrated to avoid his punishment.

Is there an English interface?

Yes. On the introduction page, the left side is in Dutch, the right side in English. If you use the links in the English text, the interface will be in English. The data you will find will be in Dutch, but there is a list of translations of commonly encountered words.

How do I use it?

Go to the search page, fill in the fields, press search. For uncommon names, it is usually sufficient to fill in the first and last name, or only the last name. If you get too many results, you may want to narrow it down by filling in city/town and date as well. In the date field, you can fill in a date (of the form dd mm yyyy: 11 01 1908 for 11 January 1908), a year, or a period (in the form yyyy/yyyy: 1901/1908 for 1901 to 1908 inclusive), among other options (click the help-link for a complete list of options).

How much does it cost?

Searching and browsing is free, there are only charges for ordering copies.

Future plans

New data will be added at least twice per year.

Conclusion

Zeeuwen gezocht is the main resource for Zeeland genealogy: If your ancestors are from Zeeland, you will probably find them on this website. But even if your ancestors are not from Zeeland you may find them on Zeeuwen gezocht: One of the sources is a collection of guest lists from the seaside resort at Domburg.