Church books at FamilySearch

FamilySearch, the genealogy website of the Mormons, had scans of the civil register for a while now. Recently they also started adding scans of pre-1811 church books: Baptisms, marriages, burials, membership lists and more. Currently available are the provinces Groningen, Drenthe, Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland, Utrecht, Noord-Brabant, and Zeeland (seven out of twelve provinces).

The scans are made from microfilms that the church had in their collection. They are not indexed and have to be browsed image by image, similar to browsing the films themselves.

To find them on the FamilySearch website, click Continental Europe and browse to Netherlands. While you are there, have a look at the many other resources on their website - there's bound to be a few that are useful for your research.

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.

Dutch archive news, December 2009

Last month's news and announcements from the Dutch archives

• Several archives announced changes in opening hours for the new year.
• Genlias added death acts from Noord-Brabant and marriage acts from Amsterdam.
• The Dutch National Archive and the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation NIOD, launched the website Wegwijzer Archieven WO2 (Guide to WW2 Archives), an online guide to the (usually offline) war archives that are scattered throughout the country. The website is available in Dutch only.
• The Central Bureau for Genealogy presented Asal Oesoel, a research guide for people with roots in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). It is the last book (for now) in the series Voorouders van verre (Ancestors from far away). The books are only available in Dutch.

Online genealogy in Noord-Brabant

• The main resource for genealogy in Noord-Brabant is BHIC, Brabants Historisch Informatie Centrum.
• A few regions and towns have their own online records: Land van Heusden en Altena, West-Brabant, Eindhoven, Tilburg.
• Find images of the past at BHIC or at the Film- en Fotobank Noord-Brabant (Film and Photo database Noord-Brabant).
• There are also local image sites, e.g. for Eindhoven, Tilburg or Roosendaal.
• BHIC is present on Flickr and YouTube. The Tilburg regional archive is present on Flickr and YouTube.
• For historical maps, visit Beelddatabank Historische Kaarten Brabant (Image database Historical Maps Brabant).
• For indexes of cemeteries and photos of tombstones visit Graftombe (Tomb), Online Begraafplaatsen Land van Heusden en Altena (Online cemeteries, Land van Heusden en Altena region) or Online Begraafplaatsen Noord-Brabant overig (Online cemeteries rest of Noord-Brabant province).
• You can discuss your Noord-Brabant roots on the Ancestry message board Noord-Brabant or the Yahoo mailing list Noord-Brabant Genealogy.

For more information see Genealogy in Noord-Brabant.

Postcard from Woudrichem

Woudrichem is an old, fortified city on the border of the provinces Zuid-Holland and Noord-Brabant. This postcard from Woudrichem was sent in 1908.

On the bottom right image we see the skyline of the city, on the bank of the river Meuse. In the middle the 15th century St. Martin's church.

Just across the river is the Loevestein castle (bottom left image). Pedestrians and cyclists can take a small ferry boat from Woudrichem to Loevestein. The castle, long used as a prison, is famous for Hugo Grotius' escape in a book chest.

Woudrichem and Loevestein are well worth a visit, if you happen to be in the neighbourhood.

Dutch archives on flickr and YouTube

Several Dutch archives are now present on the photo site flickr or the film site YouTube. I made a (probably incomplete) list.

Archives on flickr:

• Dutch National Archive
• Tresoar (provincial archive of Friesland)
• BHIC (provincial archive of Noord-Brabant)
• Schiedam city archive
• Tilburg regional archive

Dutch archives with a channel on YouTube:

• Dutch National Archive
• Tresoar
• BHIC
• Wageningen city archive
• Historisch Centrum Leeuwarden, the Leeuwarden city archive
• Tilburg regional archive

Let me know if I missed an archive.

Image credit: Zeppelin bridge, St. Michielsgestel, 6 November 1934. BHIC on flickr, from the set Vught in beeld (Images of Vught).

Archive news roundup: February-March 2009

News from the Dutch archives

• Genlias added new birth acts from Gelderland and Limburg, marriage acts from Limburg, and death acts from Gelderland, Utrecht and Limburg.
• The Dutch National Archive created an exhibition to commemorate Hudson's voyage, exactly 400 years ago. The exhibition is now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and will move to the South Street Seaport Museum in New York in September. See my earlier blog post.
• Several archives from Friesland participate in the new website Alle Friezen (All Frysians). The website aims to bring scans of BMD acts of the Frysian civil register online.
• The Brabant archives revamped their online database. There is no English interface, though.

Digitale Stamboom

The website

Last year we looked at the Digitale Stamboom (Digital Family Tree) of Rotterdam. Amersfoort, Leiden, Haarlem, Delft and Eindhoven have a similar Digitale Stamboom. The archives using the Digitale Stamboom system now offer a single search interface for their databases: Digitale Stamboom.

What do they have?

An index to BMD records and church books from the regions Amersfoort, Haarlem, Leiden, Delft, Eindhoven and Rotterdam.

Is there an English interface?

Yes: Click on English at the top right.

How do I use it?

The search interface is straightforward. Fill in some of the fields (as usual, watch out for the infix part of names like De Kooning), and press the search button at the bottom. Click on a name in the search result list for details.

The example above shows the details of the baptism of Sara van den Berg, on 18 May 1750 in Rotterdam. Watch out for the date format: 18-5-1750, and not 5-18-1750!

Click on Help at the top for more search tips.

How much does it cost?

Using the index is free. There are, of course, charges for ordering copies.

Future plans

None that I know of. In the list of participating archives, The Hague is listed. Does that mean that we can in the future also search in records from The Hague?

Conclusion

A useful site, as you can search some of the main cities that do not participate in Genlias (Rotterdam, Leiden and Delft). If you can't find your ancestors in Genlias, and you don't know where they lived, try the Digitale Stamboom.

Dutch archive news roundup December 2008

The month is not finished yet, but I don't expect anything to happen between Christmas and New Year. If there is news, I will add it to the January news roundup.

• Genlias added birth, marriage and death acts from the province Zuid-Holland.
• The National Archive opened a new website, Afscheid van Indië (Farewell to the Indies), with resources from the time of decolonization of the Dutch Indies. The National Archive also added a Flickr photo set on the same topic.
• The provincial archive of Noord-Brabant, Brabants Historisch Informatie Centrum, started publishing photos from their collection on Flickr.
• The city archive of The Hague started digitizing the Haagse Courant, the largest newspaper of The Hague. Digitized newspapers will be available in libraries and the archive in The Hague only, unfortunately there are no plans (yet?) to publish them on the internet or make them available outside The Hague.

Trace your Ellis Island ancestors into The Netherlands

With the information you find on an Ellis Island passenger list, it is usually possible to trace Dutch immigrants in The Netherlands - in many cases using online sources.

Let's have a look at Franciscus and Geertruida van Valkenburg. They arrived on Ellis Island on 18 April 1911, on the S.S. Rijndam, with their 3 years old son Franciscus. According to the passenger list (which you can find on the website of the Ellis Island foundation), Franciscus was 31 and born in Oss, his wife Geertruida was 33 and born in Mill, and their son Franciscus was 3 years old and born in Berchem. Their last residence was Berchem. Their contact address in The Netherlands was Geertruida's mother, Mrs Wagemakers, who lived in Oss. They were on their way to Geertruida's brother, G. Wagemakers, in New York.

I started by searching Genlias for a Valkenburg - Wagemakers marriage (watch out for the "van" prefix in Dutch names - see my common pitfalls article). I had no problems finding what I was looking for: Franciscus van Valkenburg, born Mill en Sint Hubert, and Geertruda Johanna Wagemakers, born Oss, married 1 May 1906 in Oss. Their parents are Johannes van Valkenburg and Johanna Gommers, and Justinus Wagemakers and Geertruida de Groot.

Mill and Oss are in the province Noord-Brabant, so I also searched the main database at BHIC, where I found the birth of Franciscus: Franciscus van Valkenburg, born 9 July 1879 in Mill, son of Johannes van Valkenburg and Johanna Gommers.

Note that the Ellis Island passenger list has the birth places of Franciscus and Geertruida reversed.

For the marriage of Johannes van Valkenburg and Johanna Gommers I searched Genlias again, and I found: Johannes van Valkenburg, born 10 October 1839 in Oss, and Johanna Gommers, born 9 March 1848 in Sambeek, married on 3 May 1878 in Oss. Their parents are Francis van Valkenburg and Hestriena van Rosmalen, and Antoon Gommers and Catharina Lemmens.

There is more information on Johannes and Johanna on Genlias and BHIC, but let's continue with Johannes' parents. Their marriage is also on Genlias (and BHIC), but it took me a bit longer to find it, because the bride's name was spelled differently: Francis van Valkenburg, born 26 November 1812 in Oss, and Henrica van Roosmalen, born 9 March 1810 in Heesch, married 28 June 1834 in Oss. Parents are Johannes van Valkenburg and Maria van Straalen, and Antonie Petrus van Roosmalen and Maria van Grunsven.

We're getting close to 1811, the year the civil register was introduced. Online Dutch genealogy before 1811 is a lot harder than after 1811 (though certainly not impossible). The marriage of Johannes van Valkenburg and Maria van Straalen (taken from the church books) is on BHIC, but the parents are not listed anymore: Joannes Johannes van Valkenburg and Maria Francisci van Straales married on 5 April 1790 in Oss. Witnesses were Gijsbertus Ruijs and Joanna Gijsberta Ruijs. Johannes and Francisci were probably patronymics, which means their fathers were probably Johannes van Valkenburg and Franciscus van Straales (or Straalen?). That gives us a clue when we want to find the next generation, but I will not do that for this article.

So, starting with a listing on an Ellis Island passenger list, we were able to add three generations in the main line (Johannes, Francis and Johannes), and well over a century, all with freely accessible online resources!

There is a lot more information on Genlias and BHIC (and possibly other sites), also on siblings and, of course, other lines, but I leave that as an exercise for the reader.

There are more examples on tracing Dutch Ellis Island immigrants into The Netherlands in my article Trace your Ellis Island ancestors into The Netherlands and in the latest Trace your Dutch roots newsletter.

Online records: Brabants Historisch Informatie Centrum

The website

Brabants Historisch Informatie Centrum, or BHIC, is the name of the provincial archive in the province Noord-Brabant (often abbreviated to Brabant). Their website contains practical information about the archive, historical information, images, stories and genealogical databases, all related to Brabant.

What do they have?

The main database has church books (1582-1811), birth, marriage and death (BMD) acts (1811-1922) and population registers. Marriage acts (1811-1922) are complete, the other registers are a work in progress.

There are many other databases, all with their own search interface, like a database of criminal records, and a large image database. The site has also a lot of stories and some informative articles, but unfortunately these are only available in Dutch.

Is there an English interface?

Only the search interface of the main database and some information is available in English. To get to the main database, you have to find your way from an all-Dutch homepage and navigate through an all-Dutch menu.

How do I use it?

To reach the main database from the home page, select Voorouders binnen Brabant in the menu stamboom. Click English on the left hand side. Or use the direct link. The search interface works the same as the interface of Zeeuwen gezocht that we looked at in an earlier post. Use the help links to the right of each field to find out more.

The criminal records can be found by selecting Criminele voorouders in the menu stamboom. The search interface is in Dutch, search options include rechtbank (court), achternaam (last name), voornaam (first name), delict (crime) and periode (in jaren) (year from/to). In this database you will find, for example, that Gozewinus Johannes Jansen is condemned twice by the court in 's-Hertogenbosch (in 1902 and 1904), both times for landloperij (vagrancy). His sentence is not mentioned, you need to visit the archive to discover that.

The image bank can be reached by selecting Brabantse foto's zoeken in the menu stamboom.

Direct links: main database - criminal records - image database.

There are several other - often specialized - databases on the site, some of them quite hidden. These include seals, chamber of commerce, and nuisance act permits.

How much does it cost?

All information that is currently available is free. Prints, maps and photos for which BHIC owns the copyright can be freely downloaded for personal use (source: BHIC colofon).

Future plans

The website is regularly updated. Scans of church registers and BMD acts will be available on the website later this year.

Conclusion

The main database has a large overlap with Genlias, but also many records you will not find anywhere else. It's a pity that so little is available in English. I would also like to see a single search page for all databases, and an easier way to navigate the site. However, the site is a must if your ancestors are from Noord-Brabant.

Dutch archive news roundup: Q4 2007

• Genlias has added new acts from the Netherlands Antilles (Aruba, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Maarten) and from the Dutch provinces Overijssel, Noord-Brabant and Limburg.
• The National Archives published a guide to the sources relating to Ghana in the Dutch archives: Sources for the Mutual History of Ghana and the Netherlands.
• Tresoar and Internationaal Menno Simons Centrum (IMSC, a baptist research institute) announced a joint project to digitize their baptist sources.
• The Central Bureau for Genealogy revamped their website and announced the publication of parts of their collection on their website, starting mid to late January (charges will apply).
• Several archives announced new opening times for 2008.

Dutch archives news roundup - May 2007

News from the Dutch archives.

• The National Archives opened the archives of Ordedienst and Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten, Dutch resistance movements sponsored by the Dutch government in exile during the second world war. These can be consulted on site in The Hague.
• The National Archives have a vacancy for a new Director, as their current Director will retire at the end of this year.
• Over half of the car license plate registrations for Friesland from the period 1906-1950 are now available online. The rest will follow this year.
• The Amsterdam Archive opened a new and improved image bank.
• All birth acts from Rotterdam (1811-1902) are now available in their online database. Death acts will be next.
• The provinces Groningen, Noord-Brabant, Noord-Holland, Limburg and Zeeland have added new acts to Genlias.