Dutch archive news roundup: March 2008

News from the Dutch archives:

• Genlias added and updated records from Groningen.
• All pre-1811 funeral church books from Drenthe are now available in Drenlias. Drenlias now contains 27,000 funeral records, listing 36,000 names.
• The Utrecht Archive opened their new website. The English interface seems unfinished.
• The National Archive published its library catalogue online.

Dutch archive news roundup: February 2008

News from the Dutch archives:

• Genlias added birth records from Groningen and Zuid-Holland, marriage records from Groningen, Utrecht and Zuid-Holland, and death records from Groningen, Utrecht and Zuid-Holland.
• The Central Bureau for Genealogy announced that publication of part of their collection online is currently in testing phase, and will finally be available to the public some time in March.
• The Friesland Archive published its 1811 register of surnames online on Tresoar. (Surnames became compulsory in 1811. Until then, many families in Friesland did not have a surname. Many families chose a surname in 1811 and registered it, and these registrations are now available online.)
• The Utrecht Archive announced a new website that will replace their current website. The new website will be launched in March.

Dutch archive news roundup: January 2008

News from the Dutch archives.

• The provinces Zeeland and Zuid-Holland have added records to Genlias. This includes for the first time records of The Hague.
• The National Archive announced several documents from its collection will be on display in New York next year, in an exhibition celebrating the 400th birthday of Henry Hudson's voyage on what is now the Hudson river. One of the documents on display will be the famous 1626 letter describing the purchase of Manhattan for 60 guilders (24 dollars). This letter is also on permanent display on the website of the National Archive
• The Groningen archive announced a new website with records from the province Groningen: Alle Groningers. We will soon have a look at this website in the series Online records.

Marriages from The Hague in Genlias

Marriages from The Hague between 1811 and 1842 are now available in Genlias. The Hague - the third-largest city in The Netherlands - is now the largest city with records in Genlias.

Online records: Genlias

The website

Genlias is probably the largest and certainly the most important database of Dutch genealogy records. It is a joint project of the Dutch national archive and many provincial, regional and local archives, as well as the national archive of the Netherlands Antilles.

What do they have?

Birth, marriage and death records from many Dutch places, from between 1811 and the early 20th century, as well as some records from church books from before 1811. Genlias is a work in progress, and currently far from complete, but already contains over ten million records, naming almost 43 million people.

In addition to Dutch records, they also have birth, marriage and death records from the Netherlands Antilles.

Is there an English interface?

Yes: The search interface and information pages are available in Dutch and English. Click on English, at the top.

The records in the database are in Dutch.

How do I use it?

Read the search instructions on Genlias, or the Genlias article on the Trace your Dutch roots website.

How much does it cost?

Using Genlias is free. In many cases, it is possible to order copies of the records, charges for these vary.

Future plans

Genlias is ambitious: They aim to enter all data from the open civil registers in the Netherlands into Genlias in the near future, supplemented with a number of additional sources. Also countries that have or had a constitutional relationship with the Netherlands will be invited to participate.

But the ambition extends even further. Research into family trees is an active historical study that provides answers to the following questions. How did our ancestors live? What did they do for a living? Were they rich or poor? Such a quest into the past can be a real 'historical sensation'.

See the Genlias ambition page.

Conclusion

If your Dutch ancestors left The Netherlands in the 19th or 20th century, and you have some basic information on them, Genlias is the best place to start tracing your Dutch roots. For the 18th century and before, it is probably less useful, even though there are some earlier records in their database.

Trace your Dutch roots online

If you are new to Dutch genealogy you will be interested in my article Trace your Dutch roots online on Squidoo. In this article I discuss the main websites with Dutch records, in particular the important Genlias project.

Dutch archives news roundup - July 2007

News from the Dutch archives.

• The provinces Overijssel, Limburg and Zeeland have added new acts to Genlias.
• The Utrecht Archive opened a new online database: Stadsbestuurders Utrecht (City administrators Utrecht), with data on all mayors, aldermen and council members from 1813 to 2006. Administrators from before 1813 will follow later.
• The search interface of the Rotterdam Digital Family Tree is now available in English.
• The City Archive of The Hague published the council accounts of the The Hague city archive (1855-2005) on their website.

Dutch archives news roundup - June 2007

News from the Dutch archives.

• Several Dutch archives have limited opening hours during July and August. Check their websites for details.
• The Drenthe Archive presented the book In de versnelling, about cars in Drenthe in the last 100 years. There is also an exposition on the same topic in the Drenthe Archive (until August).
• The Gelderland Archive announced a major overhaul of their website. The new website will launch in July. The archive also announced that one million Gelderland death acts are now indexed in Genlias.
• The National Archive announced a new website about Zuid-Holland history: www.geschiedenisvanzuidholland.nl, a cooperation of several institutions in Zuid-Holland. The new website seems to be available in Dutch only.
• It was already possible to search for gezinskaarten on the website of the Amsterdam Archive, but you can now also see the scans online. A great service if you have relatives in late-19th or early-20th century Amsterdam. This is a paid service: Searching the index is still free, but you have to pay to see scans.

Dutch archives news roundup - March 2007

• The National Archive announced the addition of records from the Netherlands antilles to the Genlias project. See my earlier post on this topic.
• The Amsterdam City Archive closed its doors on 30 March. They will spend the next few months moving to a new location. The new location will open to the public on 7 August.
• A researcher discovered a hand-written letter by Voltaire in the Friesland archive. It is the only known Voltaire letter that is written in Dutch.
• The Gelderland Archive discovered a 16th century album amoricum in a private collection that they have currently on loan. The album dates from before 1556 and is the oldest known Dutch album amoricum.
• The Noord-Holland archive completed their refurbishment and reopened on a new location.

Almost half the records of the Netherlands Antilles available in Genlias

Records of the Netherlands Antilles, the Caribbean island group that are part of the Kingdom of The Netherlands, are now available in Genlias:

Almost half the records from the Civil Registration of the period 1828-1950 of the Netherlands Antilles have been added to Genlias. That is good news for the population of the Antilles and for Dutch people with ancestors from the Antilles.

All records of Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten and Bonaire, and some records of Aruba and Saba, are now available. The records of Curaçao, and the remaining records of Aruba and Saba, will follow soon.

Links: Genlias - National Archives of the Netherlands Antilles, National Archives of the Netherlands Antilles.

Genlias

Genlias is a project that I'll probably discuss often in this blog. It is the most important online source for Dutch genealogy research. Its goals are amitious:

Dutch archives aim to enter all data from the open civil registers in the Netherlands into Genlias in the near future. These will be supplemented with additional information from older sources and statements of succession.

The Dutch civil register is a register that lists all births, deaths and marriages that took place in The Netherlands since 1811. Most marriages from the period 1811-1922 are now in Genlias (notable exceptions are the marriages from the three largest cities, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague). If your ancestors came from Holland in the early 20th, or mid- or late-19th century, Genlias should be the first place to go. Read more.