Belgium Research Tips and Strategies: Difference between revisions

Belgium Research Tips and Strategies (view source)

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→‎Research for the 17th and 18th century

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 == Research for the 17<sup>th</sup> and 18<sup>th</sup> century ==
-During this era the civil register did not yet exist. However, the church has similar record, that is records of baptism, marriage and burials. 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. Given the baptism record of an ancestor, you can proceed by collecting all baptism records of their siblings. If you can only find a few sibling, then either one of the parents died young or the parents remarried, either way you can search for an other marriage of the parents. Note that people often remarried within the year.
+During this era the civil register did not yet exist. However, the church has similar record, that is records of baptism, marriage and burials.
+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.
-Now, suppose you have a long list of potential siblings. Next, you should look for potential matches. Find the baptism record of someone with the same name and see if people in the list show up as relatives of the potential match.
+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.
+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.
+From these records you have an full name, an approximate birth year and a list with likely relatives.
+Next, you should try to match this with the household of each parent.
-As this work can be labour intensive, 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.
+Tips:
+* It can be useful to look at other records, but their accessibility can depend on the region.
+* 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]].
+* 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.
+* 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.
+* 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.
+* 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'''.
 == Research for the 16<sup>th</sup> century and earlier ==