Dutch archive news, August 2010

August means summer, and summer means vacation season: Many archive visitors and archive staff were on vacation. The result was limited opening hours, fewer visitors, and hardly any news.

• New in genlias: Marriage records from Curaçao and death records from Flevoland (Noordoostpolder, Urk, Zuidelijke IJsselmeerpolders) and Noord-Holland (Anna Paulowna, Beemster, Oostzaandam, Sijbekarspel, Spanbroek, Westzaandam, Zaandam).
• Three archives used the quiet summer months to launch a page on facebook: the provincial archives BHIC (Noord-Brabant) and Tresoar (Friesland), and the regional archive Markiezenhof (Bergen op Zoom). Markiezenhof is also new on Twitter (@hetmarkiezenhof). See the complete list of Dutch archives on facebook and twitter.

Dutch archive news April-May 2010

• Genlias added birth and death records from the Netherlands Antilles (birth records from Aruba, death records from Saba), marriage records from Drenthe (Anloo), birth records from Flevoland (Urk), and death records from Noord-Brabant (a major update).

• The National Library of the Netherlands is digitizing Dutch newspapers from 1618 to the late 20th century (as I announced before). The first batch of one million pages is available now, the other seven million pages will be added over the next 18 months. The newspapers are in Dutch, of course, and so is the search page.
• The National Library, together with the National Archive of Suriname, will digitize newspapers from Suriname from 1774-1995. This includes papers from the collections of the National Archive of Suriname and papers from the collections of the National Library of the Netherlands.
• More newspapers: Tresoar announced several digitized regional newspapers from the northern part of the country (Groningen, Friesland, Drenthe) are now available on a new website. In the future they will add more (northern) newspapers.
• The Zeeland archive has a new website. There is no English interface, only an English summary.
• The Overijssel archive opened a flickr account. Currently there is only an album about football (soccer) in Zwolle, hopefully other albums will follow soon.
• The Utrecht archive opened a new website section about Utrecht in WWII, but only in Dutch.
• The Dutch National Archive, which is also the provincial archive of Zuid-Holland, has copies of the church books of the province Zuid-Holland (the originals are scattered throughout the province). Over the next few months these copies will be digitized and from November they should be available on the website of the National Archive. In the meantime these copies cannot be consulted by archive visitors. (link)

Dutch archive news Q1 2010

• Genlias added new birth records from Curaçao, marriage records from Flevoland, birth, marriage and death records from Limburg, birth and death records from Noord-Brabant, marriage and death records from Noord-Holland, marriage and death records from Utrecht, birth, marriage and death records and church books (baptisms from Brielle) from Zuid-Holland.
• The National Library of The Netherlands is going to digitize part of its magazine collection. Read the project page here (in Dutch).
• Tresoar digitized and translated (in English) a collection of letters that Dutch immigrants in the U.S.A. sent home. Note: The translations are copyrighted and may not be published without permission of the translator.
• Ten Dutch heritage institutions cooperated to create a new biography portal (a who's who of Dutch history). Unfortunately the website is only available in Dutch.
• The Amsterdam city archive is on facebook.
• The Rotterdam city archive placed more than 300 Rotterdam world war II photos on flickr.

Online genealogy in Flevoland

It is odd to talk about the new province Flevoland on a genealogy site. A century ago, nearly all of Flevoland was water part of the Zuiderzee (Southern Sea, a small inland sea). In the early 1930s, the Afsluitdijk (Closure Dike) closed off the Zuiderzee and turned it into a fresh water lake, the IJsselmeer (Lake IJssel). Since then, several large polders were created in the IJsselmeer, where people now live on the bottom of the (former) sea. Since 1986 these polders form the province Flevoland.

Two places were inhabited before the 20th century, though: The former islands Urk and Schokland (the latter was evacuated in 1859 and uninhabited since then). The northeastern part of Flevoland is inhabited since the early 1940s.

• The provincial archive, Nieuw Land Museum (New Land Museum), and others participate in the websites Nieuw Land Erfgoed (New Land Heritage), Flevolands Geheugen (Flevoland's Memory), and Flevoland boven water (Flevoland above the water). All websites are in Dutch.
• Church books and BMD records of Schokland and Urk are indexed in Genlias.
• There are images of the past on Flevoland boven water and on local sites, for example Schokland.
• For indexes of cemeteries and photos of tombstones visit Graftombe (Tomb) or Online Begraafplaatsen (Online Cemeteries).
• Discuss your Flevoland roots at the Ancestry message board Flevoland.

For more information see Genealogy in Flevoland.

Photo: Construction of the Afsluitdijk, 1931, unknown photographer. From Wikimedia Commons.

Dutch archive news June 2009

• Several archives announced limited opening hours during the summer.
• The Royal Dutch Library completed its Short-Title Catalogue (STCN), a complete biography of Dutch books printed between 1540 and 1800. The project took 15 years to complete. You can consult the database here.
• Genlias added birth records from Groningen.
• The Flevoland archive announced a new exhibition and website: Vergane schepen (Lost ships). The area that is now the province Flevoland was once the Zuiderzee, a small inland sea. 435 shipwrecks were found during the creation of the polders in the Zuiderzee. The website Vergane schepen shows a selection on a map, with images of and information about the wreck (in Dutch).

Image: de ventjager, an 18th century fish transporting ship, part of the Vergane schepen exhibition. Source: Press release of Nieuw land erfgoed, the Flevoland archive and heritage centre.