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Netherlands - Birth - 1811-Present (view source)
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On 6 January 1811 the French Imperial (Napoleon) decree served notice that by 1 March 1811 all births, marriages and deaths had to be recorded by the civil authorities of each municipality. | |||
The following information will usually be found in a birth entry: | |||
• The name of your ancestor. | |||
• The date of your ancestor's birth. | |||
• The name of your ancestor's parents. | |||
• The names, ages, occupations, and residences of the witnesses. | |||
• The relationships of the witnesses to your ancestor. | |||
• The place of your ancestor's birth. | |||
• The residence of the parents. | |||
• The age and occupation of the parents. | |||
• Whether your ancestor was of legitimate or illegitimate birth. | |||
The following 5 steps will guide you in finding your ancestor in the Netherlands’ civil registration records. | |||
Step 1. Find the year of your ancestor's birth record. | |||
To find the birth records available at the library, look in the Family History Library Catalog. Go to What to Do Next, select the Family History Library Catalog, and click on the tab for Town Records to see if your ancestor's town is listed. | |||
When looking for your ancestor's birth record, remember: | |||
• Birth records are arranged chronologically. | |||
• Birth records were kept by the civil registration office in the municipality where your ancestor lived. | |||
• Yearly indexes and 10-year indexes to the birth records exist. | |||
If you don't know which municipality your ancestor lived in, see the Netherlands gazetteer 'Van Goor's aardrijkskundig woordenboek van Nederland'. | |||
Step 2. Find the entry for your ancestor. | |||
Use the index first. Look for the last name, and then look for the given name. Record the date of registration and entry number. Next locate the entry. | |||
If you do not know the names of your ancestor's parents, you may have to check further to make sure you find the correct entry: | |||
• Find the entries for all the children with the same given name and last name as your ancestor. Start with the year when you think your ancestor was born. Then check the entries for five years before and five years after. You may find several entries for children with the same name but with different parents. | |||
• Eliminate the entries that contradict what you know about your ancestor. Check death records to see if any of the children died before your ancestor did. Check marriage records to see if any of the children married someone other than your ancestor's spouse (but remember that your ancestor may have married more than once). | |||
• Try to make sure the birth entry is of your direct line ancestor. Because names are so common, you must be sure you have the correct entry. | |||
Step 3. Find the entries for each brother and sister of your ancestor. | |||
Once you have the entry for your ancestor, find the entries for your ancestor's brothers and sisters: | |||
• Search the birth records for entries of your ancestor's brothers and sisters. | |||
• Search local death records or the birth records from surrounding municipalities, especially if there are gaps of 3 or more years between the births of siblings. Gaps of 3 or more years may indicate there was another child. | |||
• To make sure you have found entries of all the family members, search death records and birth records of surrounding municipalities for any additional children. | |||
• Search for children born before the parents' marriage. Children may have been born under the mother's maiden name. Sometimes the father's name is not given. | |||
Step 4. Copy the information, and document your sources. | |||
If you can, photocopy the record. If you can't, be sure to copy all the information in the entry, including: | |||
• All the people listed and their relationships to each other. (Remember, witnesses are often relatives.) | |||
• All the dates in the entry and the events they pertain to. (Sometimes corrections to a birth record were added in the entry's margin.) | |||
• All the localities in the entry and who was from the places listed. | |||
On the copy, document where the information came from. List: | |||
• The type of source (a paper certificate, a microform, a book, an Internet site, and so forth). | |||
• All reference numbers for the source. Carefully record any microfilm, book, or certificate numbers or the name and Internet address of the site you used. | |||
Step 5. Analyze the information you obtain from the birth record. | |||
To effectively use the information from the birth record, ask yourself the following questions: | |||
• Is this the birth entry of my direct line ancestor? Because names are so common, you must be sure you have the correct record. | |||
• Did the civil registrar identify both parents, and is the mother's maiden name given? | |||
• Did more than 3 years pass since the birth of the last child? If so, another child may have been born in a neighboring municipality. | |||
• Did you search 5 years without finding any earlier birth entries of children? If you find no other entries, then begin looking for the parents' marriage record. | |||
'''1.''''''Register of Births: Civil registration''' | '''1.''''''Register of Births: Civil registration''' | ||