Postcard from Utrecht

Postcard from Holland is a regular feature on this blog. From time to time, usually on Wednesday, I post a card from my collection of vintage postcards. Today: Utrecht.

A view of the city Utrecht, with the Neude and Janskerkhof squares.

Looking at this postcard it seems to me the photo was taken from the tower of the Dom church, looking to the north. The square at the bottom right is the Janskerkhof (and to the right of it, on the edge of the card, you can just make out part of the Janskerk church). The square on the left is the Neude. The tower in the background is the water tower on the Lauwerhof street.

The card was sent in 1923, so this photo was taken at least 90 years ago.

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.

Postcard from Zeist

The caption is Zeist, Vijver bij 't Groen Bergje - Zeist, pond near 't Groene Bergje. I don't know what 't Groene Bergje is; literally it means the little green mountain, so possibly it was a small hill near Zeist.

The card shows the pond (but no hill). On the background we see a shepherd with a few sheep and a dog, and a man who is sitting down at the pond and probably reading a book.

Dutch archive news: June 2010

• New records in Genlias: Birth records from Limburg (Horst, Neeritter, Schinnen, Sittard, Venlo) and Utrecht (Utrecht City), and death records from Limburg (Ottersum, Swalmen, Venlo) and Noord-Holland (Avenhorn, Etersheim, Groet, Haarlemmermeer, Hensbroek, Nibbixwoud, Opdam, Opmeer, Wognum).
• The Utrecht archives will expand the Archiefbank (archive database), on 5 July. There will also be a charge for viewing and downloading scans.
• The National Library of The Netherlands digitized its collection of catchpenny prints and made it available on Memory of The Netherlands: "This collection of catchpenny prints gives a good picture of the topics the population was interested in. For researchers and people interested in the history of the Netherlands this is a real treasure-house containing images and texts from the past. This remarkable heritage is now digitally available so that everyone can become acquainted with it. The catchpenny prints can be regarded as source material for research of text and language; of the daily life of our ancestors plying trades (that have disappeared), children's games, transport, fashion, role patterns, housing and housekeeping; tilling the land, poverty and wealth; of values and standards and pedagogical views and of image with illustration techniques and styles."
• The Gelderland archive opened a new website. Unfortunately, there is no English interface.
• Three new archives on Twitter: the Schiedam city archive, the Utrecht provincial archive, and Westfriesland regional archive in Hoorn. See the complete list of tweeting archives.
• The city archive of Den Haag opened a film database with moving images from their collections, from the period 1905-1983.
• The Zeeland archive is scanning its civil registry. The first scans (BMD records of Schouwen-Duiveland) should be available some time next year.

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.

Postcard from De Bildt

The KNMI, Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut (Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute) in De Bilt (spelled De Bildt on the postcard).

The institute, founded in 1854, moved to De Bilt in 1897. The postcard was sent in 1906, so the observatory was still relatively new then. The KNMI is still in De Bilt. They research climate change and seismology, but in The Netherlands they are best known for their weather forecasts.

Dutch archive news November 2009

• Many archives announced limited opening hours and service around the holidays.
• Genlias added new birth records from Utrecht, new marriage records from Friesland, and new death records from Friesland and Utrecht.
• The National Archive opened an e-depot. Nowadays many government records are only created electronically. These records need to be remain accessible for interested parties and have to be archived and kept for future generations, just like the paper records of the past. Though currently a pilot with just a few records, the e-depot of the national archive will eventually electronically store and archive these records.
• The first selection of audiovisual material for Open Images is now available online. The subjects of the 469 items that can now be found on Open Images are very diverse, such as an item about a caravan that can also be used as a boat, a video about the Tour de France in the Netherlands and about the first residents of Almere city.
• Drenlias is adding tax registers from the 17th and 18th century. The Groningen archive is publishing estate inventories online. So if your ancestors lived in Groningen or Drenthe you can soon find out if they prospered.
• The Amsterdam city archive published pre-1811 burial registers on their website, available here.

Online genealogy in Utrecht

• To find BMD records for Utrecht, use Genlias.
• The archives of the region Southeastern Utrecht and Eemland have their own online databases, including church books.
• The Utrecht provincial archive published an index and scans of the notarial archive of Utrecht city online.
• For images of the past, visit the image database of the provincial archive.
• Regional and local image collections include Rijnstreek and Lopikerwaard, Amersfoort and Zeist.
• For indexes of cemeteries and photos of tombstones visit Graftombe (Tomb) or Online Begraafplaatsen (Online Cemeteries).
• Discuss your Utrecht roots at the Ancestry message board Utrecht or the Yahoo mailing list Utrecht Genealogy.

For more information see Genealogy in Utrecht.

Dutch archive news: July 2009

It's summer, and that means holiday season here in Holland. Archives have fewer visitors (visitors are on holiday), limited service and limited opening hours (staff are also on holiday). Summer also means there is hardly any news to report.

• Genlias added birth acts from Groningen, Utrecht and Curaçao, marriage acts from Utrecht, and death acts from Utrecht.
• The regional archive of Achterhoek (Gelderland) placed scans of church books of several towns on Flickr.

Dutch archive news roundup: April 2009

• Genlias added birth and marriage acts from Friesland, and birth, marriage and death acts from Utrecht.
• The Dutch National Archive published new images on flickr The Commons, including a set of images related to New York.
• The archives in Groningen opened a new image database: Beeldbank Groningen.
• Drenlias, the database of BMD acts from Drenthe, added scans of death acts of the period 1943-1952. This includes the death act of the concentration camp in Westerbork, but also many death acts of Jews who died in e.g. Auschwitz or Sobibor. Death acts for these people were usually made up after the war in their last place of residence. These death acts often have supplements, scans of these documents are also online.
• Last year, I wrote about the Archiefbank (Archives Database) of the Amsterdam City Archive. The Archiefbank recently became available in English. The Archiefbank was one of the winners of Best Archives Website, awarded by ArchivesNext.

Photo: Queen Wilhelmina visits New York and is welcomed by Mayor La Guardia. Dutch National Archive, on flickr The Commons.

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 January 2009

• Genlias has added birth and marriage acts from Utrecht, and birth and death acts from Zuid Holland.
• The Amsterdam archive published several new indexes, including a database of descriptions of criminals released from jail (1898-1917). Scans (with photos) are also available, for a fee (see the example scan).
• The Rotterdam death index is now complete for the years 1811-1893.
• The Rotterdam city archive is currently digitizing the passenger lists of the Holland America Line. Eventually, the passenger lists will be published on their website. In the meantime, passenger lists can not be consulted for a few months.

Graveyard Rabbit

You may have noticed the new link in the sidebar, or read the announcement in the newsletter. For those of you who missed it, I repeat the announcement here:

Terry Thornton, author of Hill Country of Monroe, Mississippi, recently founded The Association of Graveyard Rabbits. The goal of the association is to promote "the historical importance of cemeteries, grave markers, and the family history to be learned from a study of burial customs, burying grounds, and tombstones". Members are required to have their own membership blog, where they engage in "the study of cemeteries, the preservation of cemeteries, and the transcription of genealogical/historical information written in cemeteries".

I am a charter member of the Association. My membership blog is The Graveyard rabbit of Utrecht and Het Gooi. On this blog, I will post photo impressions of cemeteries in the Utrecht and Het Gooi regions and write about Dutch burial customs and Dutch cemeteries and their "inhabitants", often with a focus on the Utrecht and Het Gooi regions. [...]

Visit The Graveyard Rabbit for a list of members and their blogs. Most members focus on a region in North America. At the moment, I am the only Dutch graveyard rabbit.

Until 1 November 2008, membership of the Association is open, visit The Graveyard Rabbit for more information. From 1 November, membership is by invitation only.

Dutch archive news roundup: Summer 2008

News from the Dutch archives:

• Genlias added acts from the provinces Utrecht, Zuid-Holland and Limburg.
• The Central Bureau for Genealogy (CBG) is busy digitizing the so-called German acts, BMD acts of Dutch nationals who stayed in Germany during the second world war (except in concentration camps). Acts that can be published under Dutch privacy laws will later be available on their website (for a fee).
• Read the English summary of the latest CBG newsletter.
• Tresoar, the website of the Friesland archives, offers a new search interface for their (post-1811) BMD records. With a single interface you can now search BMD records, the website itself, the library catalogue, the image database, and more.
• Tresoar can now be found on Hyves (the Dutch social networking site) and Youtube.
• In the 19th century, many beggars, tramps, and paupers were forced to live and work in armenkolonies (pauper colonies). The archives of these colonies are now online on Drenlias.
• The Utrecht archive opened a second location in the Hamburgerstraat in downtown Utrecht. The most commonly used materials for genealogy research (e.g. microfilms of BMD records, the church books and the population registers) can be consulted at the new location, most original documents have to be consulted at the old location in the Alexander Numankade.

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.

Online records: Het Utrechts archief

The website

Het Utrechts Archief is the website of the provincial archive of Utrecht.

What do they have?

Unlike the provincial websites we looked at so far, Het Utrechts Archief does not have BMD records - these are available in Genlias, and the Utrecht archive does not duplicate them on their own website. They do have several other databases with records and images from Utrecht.

The most interesting database is the notarial archive, with summaries and scans of notarial acts from the city of Utrecht made between 1560-1811. Other databases include an image database with images from (mostly) Utrecht city, an image database with images from the Dutch railway company NS (whose head office is in Utrecht), and a database of films related to the province Utrecht.

Is there an English interface?

There is an English summary (click on English in the navigation menu on the left), but the rest of the website, including the search interfaces, is only available in Dutch.

How do I use it?

Select Zoeken in the navigation menu, followed by the database of your choice. Alternatively, follow the direct links to the databases in this blog post. Fill in the fields, and click Zoeken.

For the notarial archive, fields include Achternaam (surname), Voornaam (first name), Beroep (occupation), Woonplaats (residence), Periode (year from/to), and Naam onroerend goed (name of a house or estate).

For the image databases, Trefwoord(en) (Keywords) is the most important field to fill in. For images you may also want to fill in Datering (estimated year from/to) and Soort beeldmateriaal (image kind): Alle soorten (all kinds), Bewegend beeld (moving images), Cartografische documenten (cartographic documents), Fotografische documenten (photographic documents), Technische tekeningen (technical drawings), or Tekeningen en prenten (drawings and prints). For films, options include Locatie (Location), Jaar (Year from/to), and Videofragment - choose alleen met (only with) to search for films with online footage.

How much does it cost?

There is no charge for using the databases, but there is for publication of images or film fragments (also on a website). Contact the Utrecht archive for details.

Future plans

The Utrecht archive is working on a new website that will go live soon.

The notarial archive, the image database Utrecht and the film database are not completed - records, images and films are added regularly. Most of the images in the image database are from Utrecht City, in the future images from other places in the province Utrecht are also expected.

Conclusion

The focus of most databases is on the city of Utrecht, information on the rest of the province Utrecht is scarce. It's a pity that the website is not available in English, I hope that will change when the new website launches. A single search interface would be a welcome improvement.

The notarial archive is the core of the website. If your pre-1800 ancestors were from Utrecht City or the surrounding area, and did not belong to the labouring classes, you can probably find some gems in this archive - it contains wills, property deeds, marriage contracts, and property inventories, among others. The website will be less useful for you if your Utrecht ancestors were labourers.

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.