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Belgium Emigration and Immigration

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Online Records

These sources cover multiple countries.

Finding the Town of Origin in Belgium

If you are using emigration/immigration records to find the name of your ancestors' town in Belgium, see Belgium Finding Town of Origin for additional research strategies.

Belgium Emigration and Immigration

"Emigration" means moving out of a country. "Immigration" means moving into a country. (See Immigration into Belgium.)
Emigration and immigration sources list the names of people leaving (emigrating) or arriving (immigrating) in the country. These sources may be passenger lists, permissions to emigrate, or records of passports issued. The information in these records may include the emigrants’ names, ages, occupations, destinations, and places of origin or birthplaces. Sometimes they also show family groups.

Emigration

Dark thin font green pin Version 4.png One option is to look for records about the ancestor in the country of destination, the country they immigrated into. See links to immigration records for major destination countries below.

Belgian Immigration Records by Country of Destination

Canada

Canada Online Sources

Canada Background

  • Belgian Canadians are Canadian citizens of Belgian ancestry or Belgium-born people who reside in Canada. According to the 2011 census there were 176,615 Canadians who claimed full or partial Belgian ancestry. It encompasses immigrants from both French and Dutch-speaking parts of Belgium.
  • People from the Southern Netherlands (present-day Belgium) first arrived in the 1660s. A trickle of artisans came to New France before the 1750s.
  • In the mid-19th century there were enough arrivals to open part-time consulates in Montreal, Quebec City and Halifax.
  • After 1859 the main attraction was free farm land. After 1867 the national government gave immigrants from Belgium preferred status, and encouraged emigration to the Francophone Catholic communities of Quebec and Manitoba.
  • Édouard Simaeys became a part-time paid Canadian agent in Belgium to publicize opportunities in Canada and facilitate immigration. The steamship companies prepared their own brochures and offered package deals to farm families. By 1898 there was a full-time Canadian office in Antwerp which provided pamphlets, lectures and specific travel advice.
  • By 1906 some 2,000 Belgians a year were arriving, most with skills in agriculture.
  • A third wave of immigration took place after 1945, with urban areas the destination. The 1961 census counted 61,000 Canadians of Belgian ancestry.
  • During the Second World War, Belgian émigrés from Canada and elsewhere in the Americas were formed into the 2nd Fusilier Battalion of the Free Belgian Forces, which was based in Canada.[1]

Sweden

Sweden Background

  • A large group of emigrants left Wallonia to work in promoting mining and industry in Sweden. Walloons are a Romance ethnic group native to Belgium, principally its southern region of Wallonia. For more, see: Vallons in Sweden.
  • The history of Walloon immigration to Sweden begins with industrialists Guillaume de Bèche (Willem de Besche; 1573-1629) and Louis De Geer (1587–1652), known as "the father of the Swedish steel industry". Five to ten thousand Walloons emigrated to Sweden, mainly working in the steel industry. During the 1920s, trade unions presented them to Swedish workers as mythical models.
  • On 28 January 1613, the King of Sweden put an end to the Kalmar War and was forced to make an expensive peace with the King of Denmark. He had to borrow money to pay his debts. In 1616, he approached the Dutch, offering the abundant iron mines of Sweden as collateral. Louis de Geer, from Liège, contacted the Besche brothers, one of whom, Guillaume de Bèche, had been established in Sweden since 1595 and was exploiting the iron works of Nyköping and Finspång with Walloons exiled from the Low Countries for religious reasons.
  • From 1620, between 5,000 and 10,000 Walloons emigrated to Sweden for economic and religious reasons. The Swedes were amazed by their technical knowhow, which helped them to make great progress in the steel industry. Between 1620 and 1650, Swedish steel exports trebled, reaching 17,500 tons a year, in particular for the English navy.[2]

United States

United States Online Sources

United States Background

  • According to the 2019 US census, there are 339,512 Americans who identify themselves as partially or fully of Belgian ancestry.
  • During the 17th century, colonists from the Southern Netherlands (the area of modern-day Belgium) lived in several of the Thirteen Colonies of North America. Settlements already existed in New York — in Wallabout (Brooklyn), on Long Island and Staten Island—and New Jersey (Hoboken, Jersey City, Pavonia, Communipaw, and Wallkill).
  • Later, other settlers moved into the Middle States.
  • There were also Southern Netherlands colonies in Connecticut, Delaware, and Pennsylvania established primarily by Walloons, many of whom arrived with the Dutch West India Company (founded by Willem Usselincx, a Fleming).
  • The first major wave of people from Belgium arrived to the United States during the 19th century, looking better economic and social conditions for their families. Belgian immigrants were first registered in 1820; from then to 1910, 104,000 Belgians entered the U.S. and from 1910 to 1950, the number dropped to 62,000.
  • Between 1847 and 1849 (when Belgium was plagued with disease and economic hardship), 6,000–7,000 Belgians a year arrived in the United States.
  • During this era, most Belgians coming to the U.S. were farmers, farm workers or miners; craftsmen (such as masons, cabinetmakers or carpenters) or other persons engaged in commerce (such as lace-makers or glass blowers).
  • During the 20th century many Belgians arrived in the United States to work in spaces such as universities, laboratories and industry. This is especially true after the world wars ended.
  • From 1820 to 1970, about 200,000 Belgians emigrated to the United States. Since 1950, about 1,350 Belgians migrate to the United States each year.[3]
Wisconsin

“America fever” hit a number of Brabant and Namur towns in the 1850s. Two areas, one Flemish, located south of Leuven, and one Walloon, near Wavre, saw a significant portion of their population leave for Wisconsin. They settled mainly in and around Green Bay, in the Door, Brown, and Kewaunee counties. The state of Wisconsin encouraged this migration through an advertising campaign, which was also buttressed later by the so-called spekbrieven or “bacon-letters” of emigrants and the promotion of shipping agents. This explains the high number of Belgians in Wisconsin in the census of 1860, 4,674, a number which according to some is much too low. Everaert estimates the number of Belgians in Wisconsin to be 7,000 in 1862.[4]


Immigration into Belgium

As of 2007, nearly 92% of the population had Belgian citizenship, and other European Union member citizens account for around 6%. The prevalent foreign nationals were Italian (171,918), French (125,061), Dutch (116,970), Moroccan (80,579), Portuguese (43,509), Spanish (42,765), Turkish (39,419) and German (37,621). In 2007, there were 1.38 million foreign-born residents in Belgium, corresponding to 12.9% of the total population.

At the beginning of 2012, people of foreign background and their descendants were estimated to have formed around 25% of the total population i.e. 2.8 million new Belgians. Of these new Belgians, 1,200,000 are of European ancestry and 1,350,000 are from non-Western countries (most of them from Morocco, Turkey, and the DR Congo). Since the modification of the Belgian nationality law in 1984 more than 1.3 million migrants have acquired Belgian citizenship. The largest group of immigrants and their descendants in Belgium are Moroccans.[5]

For Further Reading

Many additional sources are listed in the FamilySearch catalog:

Emigration records (Emigratie registers, Registres des émigrés)

Research use: Very valuable for making proper connections to place of origin and residence in Belgium. Many researchers do not know their ancestor's place of origin.

Record type: Lists of emigrants and immigrants, and permissions for those moving within Belgium.

Time Period: 1500-present.

Content: Emigrants’ names, ages, occupations, birth dates and places, residences, destination; wife’s and childrens’ given names and ages or number of children; reasons for emigration; taxes paid; religion, military service, etc.

Location: Provincial and municipal archives.

Population coverage: 5-10%.[6]

For an extensive article with many resources, click here.

References

  1. ↑ "Belgian Canadians", in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_Canadians, accessed 3 May 2021.
  2. ↑ "Walloon immigration to Sweden", in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walloon_immigration_to_Sweden, accessed 3 May 2021.
  3. ↑ "Belgian Americans", in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_Americans, accessed 4 May 2021.
  4. ↑ "BELGIAN IMMIGRATION TO AMERICA UNTIL 1880", The Belgian American blog, https://thebelgianamerican.com/2019/03/06/belgian-immigration-to-america-until-1880/, accessed 4 May 2021.
  5. ↑ "Belgium", in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgium, accessed 3 May 2021.
  6. ↑ The Family History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “Family History Record Profile: Belgium,” Word document, private files of the FamilySearch Content Strategy Team, 1987-1999.
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