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.

Online records: Family cards of Rotterdam

The website

The Digital Family Tree of Rotterdam is the database of the city archive of Rotterdam. We looked at this database before, e.g. in 2008, in the article Online records: Rotterdam city archive. Earlier this year the archive added a great new resource: Scans of family cards (1880-1941) from Rotterdam, with an index!

What do they have?

Today we look at family cards, though the database has a lot more. Family cards are part of the population register. Originally, the population was a census-like register that was kept up to date. Because each page could have lots of updates and changes, the register could get messy. In 1880, Rotterdam changed their register to a card system, with one household per card: the family cards. These were easier to keep up to date, as cards could easily be replaced if they were full or messy.

In 1939 the family cards were phased out in favour of a new system, and by 1941 the cards were obsolete.

The cards are now archived in the Rotterdam city archive. They are scanned and indexed, and available online.

Family cards have lots of interesting information about a household. It lists all household members. New members of the household were added at the bottom, members that left were crossed out, usually with a remark about where they went. For each person listed you will find items like date of birth (and possibly death), maiden name (if applicable), address, occupation and religion, and any additional information that the city wanted to register about its citizens.

The images below are the front and back of the family card of Leendert de Kooning, father of the celebrated Dutch-born painter Willem de Kooning (who is listed twice on the card, under numbers 7 and 8).

Is there an English interface?

Yes, if you follow this link the search interface is English. Additional information, search results and of course the scans themselves are still in Dutch, though. You can use my genealogy dictionary to help you interpret the scans.

How do I use it?

Select Population register (and deselect the other options), fill in a family name and optionally a first name, and click Search. Browse through the search results and click the one that interests you. Click View the scan.

The scan will open in a new window. There are buttons for zooming in and out, for rotating the image, for printing and for downloading.

How much does it cost?

Nothing. Even viewing and downloading scans is currently completely free!

Future plans

I assume the family card project is completed. There will be other scanning and indexing projects in Rotterdam, though.

Conclusion

This is a great resource if you have Rotterdam ancestors in the late 19th or early 20th century.

Postcard from Den Haag

Postcard from Holland is a regular feature on this blog. On Wednesdays I post a card from my collection of vintage postcards. Today: Den Haag.

A postcard of the Hofvijver (litt. Court Pond, on the foreground). The street along the water is the Vijverberg, while the trees in the middle are on the Voorhout street.

The Hofvijver is a medieval pond, next to the Binnenhof (Inner Court) complex, built for the counts of Holland. Most photos of the Hofvijver include the buildings of the Binnenhof on the background, but, as the sender noted in French, the photo on this card is taken "de l'autre côté", from the other side, with the Binnenhof behind the photographer and the Vijverberg and Voorhout streets in the background.

This postcard also featured in the post Vijverberg on my blog Images of The Hague.

Tombstone Tuesday: The grave of Johannes Vermeer

Johannes Vermeer, the celebrated painter of masterpieces like Girl with a pearl earring, The Milkmaid, and The Little Street, is buried in the Oude Kerk (Old Church) in Delft.

On the photo below you can see his grave. Originally his grave was unmarked, this stone was placed only a few years ago. Vermeer was Lid van het Sint-Lucasgilde, member of the Guild of Saint Luke. The image at the bottom of the stone is the guild's seal.

Postcard from Hillegom

Postcard from Holland is a regular feature on this blog. On Wednesdays I post a card from my collection of vintage postcards. Today: Hillegom.

The Mariastraat is a street in Hillegom. The building on the left seems to be this one on Google Streetview.

Dutch archive news, July 2010

• Genlias has new baptisms from Zuid-Holland (Brielle), births from Zuid-Holland (major update), marriages from Drenthe (most towns) and Zuid-Holland (major update), and deaths from Zuid-Holland (Alblasserdam, Giessendam and Zuidwijk).
• The National Library of The Netherlands announced that Google will scan over 160,000 18th and 19th century books from their collection. These books will (eventually) become available on the websites of Google Books, Europeana, and of course the National Library.
• The Central Bureau for Genealogy launched a new blog (in Dutch) Migranten (Migrants), about the history of immigration into and emigration from The Netherlands.
• Another Dutch archive on Twitter: the archive of Gorinchem (@archGorinchem). See the complete list of tweeting archives.

Photo: Book-scanning machine, by Cory Doctorow.

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.

Postcard from Alphen

Postcard from Holland is a regular feature on this blog. On Wednesdays I post a card from my collection of vintage postcards. Today: A postcard from Alphen.

A water tower in Alphen aan den Rijn (or Alfen, as the label on the postcard states). This 26.5 meter (87 feet) tall water tower was built in 1902, and demolished again in 1958. A second water tower was built in 1911.

I could not decipher the date on the postmark, but the card is probably sent between 1905 and 1911.

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)

Postcard from Leiden

Postcard from Holland is a regular feature on this blog. On Wednesdays I post a card from my collection of vintage postcards. Today: A postcard from Leiden.

This postcard is titled Infanterie Kazerne. Terugkomst v.d. Parade (Infantry Barracks. Return of the Parade).

The date mark is hard to decipher, but the card was sent on Christmas day in the first decade of the 20th century.

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 Zuid-Holland

• For most towns in Zuid-Holland, the best place to find BMD records is Genlias.
• There are, however, many places in Zuid-Holland that are not in Genlias. Places that are not represented in Genlias include major cities like Rotterdam, The Hague, Leiden, and Delft. There are regional and local databases you can use for these places: Rotterdam, Den Haag, Leiden, Delft, Vlaardingen, Schiedam, and Groene Hart.
• There is no provincial image database for Zuid-Holland. For images of the past, check out local and regional sites, like Rotterdam, Delft, Leiden, or Schiedam.
• The Schiedam city archive is present on flickr.
• For indexes of cemeteries and photos of tombstones visit Graftombe (Tomb). The website Online Begraafplaatsen (Online Cemeteries) has pages for the regions Alblasserwaard, Delfland, Eiland van Dordrecht, Eiland van IJsselmonde, Goeree-Overflakkee, Krimpenerwaard, Rotterdam, Schieland, Vijfheerenlanden, and rest of Zuid-Holland.
• Discuss your Zuid-Holland roots at the Ancestry message board Zuid-Holland or the Yahoo mailing list Zuid Holland Genealogy.

For more information see Genealogy in Zuid-Holland.

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.

Postcard from Rotterdam

The city hall in downtown Rotterdam, on a postcard sent on 16 July 1927. This area was largely destroyed thirteen years later, during the bombardment of Rotterdam (14 May 1940, see this photo for a view after the debris was cleared). Surprisingly, both the 1914 city hall and the church in the background survived, so the view today still looks pretty much the same (except for the traffic and the clothing of the people on the foreground, of course).

Postcard from Den Haag

The Ridderzaal (Hall of Knights) in Den Haag (a.k.a. The Hague or 's-Gravenhage) was built in the middle ages as a palace for the counts of Holland, and is now used for the opening of the parliamentary year and official receptions by the Queen, the government, and parliament. It is an icon of Dutch democracy, and a must-see for visitors of Den Haag.

This venerable hall has not always been so: During the 18th and 19th century it was used for a lot of less-than-venerable purposes, including (from 1726 to 1855) the draw for the national lottery (which, incidentally, still exists). The caption of this postcard is Loterijzaal, Lottery Hall. Apparently it was still known as such when this card was printed.

The card never ran and has no date marks, but I guess it was printed at the beginning of the 20th century.

Postcard from Hillegom

A postcard from the town Hillegom, sent on 30 July 1908. Houttuin is a small street in the center of Hillegom. There is a lot to see in this coloured photo postcard: The children posing for the camera, the ladies' hats, the boy with a hoop, clothes from a century ago. Note also the traffic: No cars, just a man on a horse and pedestrians. In the background (to the left of the horse) you can just make out a parked bicycle.

Reader's question: Roelfsema

Karin asked me:

How is it possible to find a Roelf Roelfsema who became the father of Gritje Cornelia born 8/3 1889?

Gritje Cornelia Roelfsema was born 8/3 1889 in Gravenhage as the daughter of Roelf Roelfsema and Christina Mathis. According to the family legend they were of Frisian descent.

Only a few acts from Den Haag (also known as 's-Gravenhage, or in English The Hague) are in Genlias, but The Hague does have its own database. I found the birth act of Grietje Cornelia Roelfsema in this database: Act 1080, 9 March 1889. Summary: Grietje Cornelia was born on 8 March at 3:30 pm. Parents are Roelf Roelfsema, 36, carpenter, and his wife Christina Frederika Matthijs, without occupation, both living in The Hague.

Note that 8/3 1889 means 8 March, not 3 August, 1889!

Roelf and Christina Frederika married in The Hague (marriage act 474, 1 June 1887): Roelf Roelfsema, 34, carpenter, born in Norg, living in The Hague, son of Kornelis Roelfsema (deceased) and Grietje Jans (without occupation, living in The Hague), married Christina Frederika Matthijs, 21, without occupation, born and living in The Hague, daughter of Johannes Frederik Matthijs (bookbinder, living in The Hague, present at the wedding) and Frederika Kaemmerer (deceased).

Note that Christina Frederika's father had to give permission for the wedding (as she was not yet 30), so the marriage act states he was present and consented. Roelf did not need parental permission (he was over 30), so whether his mother was present at the wedding is not listed in the marriage act.

In 1902 an interesting note was written in the margin of the wedding act: The marriage ended by divorce. The court declared the divorce on 17 December 1901, and it was registered in the margin of the marriage act on 17 February 1902.

You can continue the Roelfsema line on Genlias. As far as I can see, the Roelfsema's lived in Delfzijl (province Groningen) in the early 19th century. I don't see a connection with Friesland (yet).

Do you also have a question about Dutch genealogy that you want me to discuss? Leave your question in the comments below this post, or use the contact form.

Postcard from Scheveningen

Postcard of Scheveningen beach and the pier, sent in 1909.

Scheveningen was originally a small fishing village just outside Den Haag (The Hague). In the late 19th century it became a popular beach resort.

The pier on the postcard burned down in 1943. The current pier was built between 1959 and 1961.

Note the nice beach chairs on this postcard, and of course the (very formal) beach fashion of the time: Scheveningen was the resort of high society (a popular Dutch singer sang in the early 1930s: Er is geen zee zo distingué, Als de Scheveningse zee, Daar baadt alleen de haute volée. There is no sea as distingué as the sea at Scheveningen, only the haute volée (high society) bathe there).

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).

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.