Netherlands Archive Spotlight: Friesland

Allefriezen (https://allefriezen.nl) is the primary website to go to when undertaking research in Friesland/Fryslân.  It contains many types of records and is simple to use.

From the website: https://allefriezen.nl/en/ :

“AlleFriezen” is a website that presents data from Frisian municipal archives, the “Historisch Informatiecentrum Noordoost Fryslân” (the regional archives of north eastern Friesland), the “Historisch Centrum Leeuwarden” (Leeuwarden Historical Centre), and “Tresoar” (Frisian Historical Centre). Data about all Frisian people, born, married, or deceased in the province of Fryslân from the 16th century till the middle of the 1960’s.

“AlleFriezen” primarily aims at showing information from public records of the Registry Offices (since 1811) and to enable the viewing of the original certificates, belonging to that information. “AlleFriezen” depends on the (financial) support of the Frisian municipalities. Eventually the information from Registry Offices will be supplemented with (further) information from the registers of births, deaths and marriages.

All eighteen municipal archives participate in this umbrella website.

The website is offered in three languages, Dutch, Frisian, and English. To switch the language, look in the upper right-hand corner and click on the flag that represents the desired language. English is represented by the flag of Great Britain.

To search for ancestors from the home page, type the suggested information into the white search box.

For a more detailed search, which is recommended, click on Zoeken. This will open a the Search page where you can search in specific collections or limit the search by other criteria. You will see these options in the blue menu bar in the center of your screen. You can filter your search by the following criteria:

• Plaats-place
• Gemeente-municipality
• Bronnen-source
• Rol-role
• Periode-time period

Click on the down-arrow after each option in order to limit the search to only that criterion. You can limit by more than one criterion by clicking on multiple items.

From the Search page you can also click on the Advanced Search option located right under the white search box. This will open a search box with entry fields that allow you to search by a person’s name, role in the document, and in specific record types. You can also search with a second person.

Notice that there are four different search boxes for names, i.e. Firstname/Institution, Patronymic, Prefix, and Last name. These elements can be illustrated with a person named Jan Harms de Vries. You would fill out the boxes as such:

• Firstname/Institution: Jan
• Patronymic: Harms
• Prefix: de
• Last name: Vries

The first and last names are clear, but the Patronymic and Prefix are not. A patronymic is the father’s name, so we know that Jan’s father’s name was Harm. The prefix is an element that is not found in the English cultural tradition (in the United States). It is found in the name Dick Van Dyke, for example, but has a totally different function. The famous actor’s last name in the United States is Van Dyke, but such a name would not be found in the Netherlands, where the last name is Dyke; van is a totally different element and must be treated as such. It is NOT part of the last name! Since it is a separate element, it has its own search box. If you put this prefix into the last name box, you will get no results since the Dutch consider this to be a separate element apart from the last name. You need to be aware of these different elements when you are dealing with Frisian and Dutch names. In many Dutch websites there will be search boxes for each element of a name.

If you look at the long list of elements under the word bronnen, you'll see links to birth (geboorte), marriage (huwelijk), and death (overlijden) records first, which will be the most commonly used ones. However, other record types are also available. If you don't speak Dutch, you will find a dictionary or google translate helpful. One of the special record types that you will probably have to use at some point is Naamsaanneming 1811. Before 1811 the Frisians used a patronymic system where the children were named after the father; the father's name would be used as we saw with Jan Harms de Vries. During the French occupation, the French decreed that all Frisians had to take fixed and permanent surnames. These Naamsaannemingen are records of those name changes. They are important because you will often trace a family back to around 1810 and then they will disappear because the surnames no longer appear in the records.

To find a person, fill out the information in the search boxes and limit the search by collection and click Search. Then, a list of all hits will appear. Click on a person of interest and an extraction of the record will appear along with a link to the record itself which can be downloaded.

Some useful dictionaries for learning older Dutch and Frisian vocabulary items can be found here. You can search in the following five dictionaries at once:

• Oudnederlands Woordenboek (ONW)
• Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek (VMNW)
• Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek (MNW)
• Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal (WNT)
• Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal / Woordenboek der Friese taal (WFT)

If you do not read Dutch or Frisian, you will still need a Dutch-English or Frisian English dictionary or Google.translate to read the entries.