Digging digitally for those Dutch roots

Radio Netherlands Worldwide, the international Dutch radio station, published a short article about Dutch genealogy earlier this week:

"More Dutch people than ever before are delving into the archives to unravel their family histories. The Dutch Genealogical Society (NGV) puts this down to an increased interest in the past in general, and the advent of the internet in particular."

The article, apparently published in cooperation with Roelof Vennik, chairman of the Dutch Genealogical Society, gives several useful tips for those tracing their Dutch roots:

"It's important to know the key Dutch words involved, the basic vocabulary you need to construct what's known as a framework. A framework is the basic data on a person, such as their date of birth, marital status, and death. It's the basic information on which you can hang the rest, the family stories and history."

I agree that knowing a few Dutch words is useful, and even essential if you want to continue your research offline (e.g. in a family history center, or in a Dutch archive) - that's why I created a Dutch genealogy dictionary. However, many people "digging digitally for those Dutch roots" get by fine without knowing Dutch.

"Dig through the Dutch archives: an increasing number of Dutch archives are available online. The municipality of Rotterdam, for example, has an excellent website accessible to anyone."

I fully agree with this tip. I would have mentioned my favourite website Genlias, though. The Rotterdam website mentioned in this tip is here (click on genealogy to start your search).

Read the full article.