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| | |Country=Belgium |
| | |Name=Belgium |
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| | |Topic Type=Getting Started |
| | |Getting Started=Research Tips and Strategies |
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| | link1=[[Belgium Genealogy|Belgium]] | | | link1=[[Belgium Genealogy|Belgium]] |
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| | {|style="float:right; margin-right:030px; background-color:#acd9f9" " width="25%" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="5" border="1" |
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| | <center><font size = "4"><br>'''Purpose of Research Tips and Strategies Wiki Page'''</font></center><br> |
| | <center>''The Belgium Research Tips and Strategies page consists of links to specific research strategies for Belgium. It also contains general tips and other resources for finding your ancestors in this locality.''</center><br> |
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| This page gives an overview for beginners of how to do genealogical research in Belgium.
| | == Belgium Research Strategies == |
| | *[[Belgium Getting Started|Getting started]] |
| | *[[Belgium Finding Town of Origin|Finding the Town of Origin]] - locating the town your ancestor was from |
| | *[[Belgium Record Finder|Record Finder]] - gives suggestions for records to search |
| | *[[Belgium Online Learning|Online Learning]] - Video Classes |
| | *[[Belgium: A Strategy to Identify your Ancestors|A Strategy to Identify your Ancestors]] |
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| == How to identify a person == | | == Belgium Research Tips == |
| The first name and surname is not sufficient to identify a person, but what is? | | * Do not rush back in time. It takes time before you get used to the handwriting of older texts. If you go back too quickly, the documents will be difficult to read. |
| | * Not all documents are in the same language. The first names are often translated into the language of the text. |
| | * The civil registration was introduced during the French revolution, the earliest records used the calendar of the French republic, which is completely different from the Gregorian calendar. |
| | * Add sources. This takes a few seconds at first, but makes it easy to check later. Each record contains a lot of information, some of it might interest you in the future. |
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| <big> Matching information </big> <br>
| | == Tips for Finding Your Ancestor in the Records == |
| To verify if two records describe the same person, consider the data points that describe the person (name, age, name of parents, ...). The more information the two record have in common, the more certain you can be that they describe the same person. Unfortunately it is impossible to have absolute certainty. However, having four independent data points, such as first name, surname, year or place of birth or death, rarely creates errors without being to restrictive.
| | *Effective use of civil registration and church records includes the following strategies: |
| Although, some common sense is advised. For example:
| | #Identify your ancestor by finding his '''birth or christening record.''' |
| * If the name is common and the place is a large city, then you should have an additional data point to be certain.
| | #When you find an ancestor’s birth or baptismal record, search for the '''births of siblings'''.<br> |
| * Similarly, if you know that the name is very particular, then three data points might suffice.
| | #Search for the '''parents’ marriage record'''. Typically, the marriage took place one or two years before the oldest child was born. |
| * Obviously, the family name of the father is not a new data point, since it is always the same as the family name of the child. (Women often kept their maiden name.)
| | #Search for the '''parents' birth records.''' On the average, people married in their early 20s, so subtact 25 or so years from the marriage date for a starting year to search for the parents' birth records. |
| * Knowing the sex does not count as a data point.
| | #Search the '''death registers for all family members.''' |
| * It is not uncommon for the birthplace and death place to be the same. Having these two match between records does not contain as an entire data point, but it does help.
| | #If you do not find earlier generations in the parish registers, search neighboring parishes.<br> |
| * If you have an exact date (either for the birth or death), that can be considered as two data points instead of one.
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| * Having a birth date within the correct age range of 20 year does not count. Rather, not having it within that range is conflicting information.
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| <big> Conflicting information </big> <br>
| | *Marriages were usually performed and recorded '''where the bride lived.''' |
| Even with the above standard, it is still possible to make mistakes.
| | *Do not overlook the '''importance of death records.''' Death records are especially helpful because they may provide important information about a person’s birth, spouse, and parents. Civil death records often exist for individuals for whom there are no birth or marriage records. |
| These can be spotted by conflicting information.
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| However, most conflicting information does not make a match impossible. People can change their name, the age might be wrong by a couple of years, ... Although, conflicting information should not be ignored.
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| == Research for the 20<sup>th</sup> century ==
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| The documents dated after 1920 are not publicly available, due to privacy concerns and documents dated between 1900 and 1920 are often unavailable as well.
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| To cover this period, it should suffice to ask your family members.
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| Tip: If you can not find the documents in the [https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog '''catalogues'''], you might find it in on the website of the [https://search.arch.be '''national archive'''].
| | [[Category:Belgium]] |
| | | [[Category:Research Tips and Strategies]] |
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| == Research for the 19<sup>th</sup> century ==
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| Most information for this period can be found in the civil register. For more elaborate research, you might need to look at other records. To know which one, take a look at the [[Belgium Record Finder|Record Finder]].
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| The civil register contains three types of records: birth-, marriage- and death certificates. To find your ancestors who are born in the late 19<sup>th</sup> century, it might suffice to use the birth certificates. However, you will need all three to go back further.
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| <big> Birth certificates </big> <br>
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| The birth certificate contains the name of the child, but also contains information about the parents, such as the name and age.
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| If you are lucky it also contains the town of origin, which makes it possible to find their birth certificate. The older records might not contain the town of origin or even the age. To find their birth certificate, you might have to look at either their death certificate or marriage certificate.
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| To find the birth certificate of a migrant from Belgium, it is important to find the town of origin. Consider the article [[Belgium Finding Town of Origin|Finding Towns of Origin]].
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| <big> Marriage certificates </big> <br>
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| The marriage certificate contains information about the bride and groom, their name, age and town of origin. It also contains information about the parents. Most importantly, it either gives their residence or locates their death.
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| Tip: If a parent is still alive, they are likely to die in the following decade. Hence, you can often use this information to find the death certificate.
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| There is very little information about the marriage contained in other certificates and can therefore be difficult to find.
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| Tip: Couples often married in the town where the wife was living. If you know where she was born, check there.
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| <big> Death certificates </big> <br>
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| The death certificate contains the age, town of origin and the name of the deceased. It also gives the name of the parents and spouse.
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| This information makes it possible to find the birth certificate.
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| Tip: First, see if you can easily find the marriage certificate. Then, take the last place of residence and go through the index table of that village to search for the death certificate. Finding the birth certificate of siblings can help date the marriage and death dates of the parents.
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| == Research for the 17<sup>th</sup> and 18<sup>th</sup> century ==
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| During this era the civil register did not yet exist. However, the church has similar record, that is records of baptism, marriage and burials.
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| As the records get older, they contain even fewer information. The records for marriages and burial rarely contain information about the parents. Although, the baptism and marriage records mention the godparents and witnesses, which are often relatives. On top of that, we have that most of these records are in [[Latin Genealogical Word List|Latin]], which adds an additional difficulty.
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| When the approach of the previous section breaks down, it becomes more difficult to find the previous generation. However, for big households, the list of godparents gives a reliable way to check if a match is correct.
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| Now first, you collect information about a household: find records of the baptisms of the children, the burials of the parents and if possible the marriage of the parents.
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| From these records you have an full name, an approximate birth year and a list with likely relatives.
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| Next, you should try to match this with the household of each parent.
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| Tips: | |
| * It can be useful to look at other records, but their accessibility can depend on the region.
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| * You might also want to look at other records, just to learn more about an ancestor. To know which records, take a look at the [[Belgium Record Finder|Record Finder]].
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| * If you can only find a few sibling, then the parents might have had an other marriage (before or after) or the parents could have moved and baptized children in an other town.
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| * Suppose a surname shows up multiple times between the godparents in the same household and the surname is not that of one of the parents. A possible reason is that they are the children of the mother from an other marriage. An other reason is that they are the half siblings of a parent.
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| * As with the previous era, if the ancestor is a migrant, the article [[Belgium Finding Town of Origin|Finding Towns of Origin]] should help locate the birthplace and hence the baptism record.
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| * As this can be a lot of work, it is a good idea to check if anyone else has done it. A lot of this research can be found on [https://en.geneanet.org/ '''geneanet''']. Other peoples research can help you find primary sources, but '''do not just copy their work'''.
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| == Research for the 16<sup>th</sup> century and earlier ==
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| There are no church records for this era. It might be possible to go back further by looking at notarial records, court records, orphanage records and Naturalization records, but there is no clear strategy here.
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| == Extra tips and remarks ==
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| *Do not rush back in time. It takes time before you get used to the handwriting of older texts. If you go back to quickly, the documents will be difficult to read.
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| *The civil registration was introduced during the French revolution, the earliest records used the calendar of the French republic, which is completely different from the Gregorian calender.
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| *You can introduce dates from the calender of the French republic into the family tree, a translation to the Gregorian calender will be proposed as standardized date.
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| *Not all documents are in the same language. The first names are often translated to the language of the text.
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| *Add sources. This will take some time at first, but makes it easy to check later.
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| [[Category:Belgium]][[Category:Belgium Research Strategies]]
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