Netherlands Civil Registration

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Burgelijke Stand / Civil Registration

General Historical Background

The earliest vital records in the Netherlands were kept by the churches. Civil authorities began recording marriages and often also deaths of nonconformists in 1575. France annexed the country between 1795 and 1811.

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 civil officers were made responsible for keeping vital records. Civil registration was accomplished by requiring the people to report all births, marriages, and deaths to a civil registration office [Burgerlijke Stand], located in the municipality [gemeente]. After Napoleon's defeat, the Dutch government continued the civil registration system.

In Limburg and parts of Zeeland, civil registration began as early as 1795, because they had already been conquered by France. They cover the entire population and have one year and 10 year indexes. Civil registration records are the most important source for genealogical research in the Netherlands and are easily accessible.

Geboorten / Births

The following information will usually be found in a birth entry:

• The name of the child.
• The birth date of the child.
• The birth place of the child.
• The name of the child's parents.
• The residence of the parents
• The age and occupation of the parents.
• The names, ages, occupations, and residences of the witnesses.
• The relationships of the witnesses to the child, if any.
• It will never say if the child is legitimate or illegitimate.

If a child was born out of wedlock it will not usually mention a father, even if he is known. If the child's parents do later marry and the father acknowledge the child as his, it will mention this in the margin.At that time the last name of the child will also change from the mother's last name to the father's last name. However this does not mean that he is the biological father!. If the child is illegitimate, but the father is named, there is no reason to suspect false paternity. Church Records may be of use in these situations, but are difficult to access.

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  A Birth Record from 1841

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Huwelijken / Marriage

The following information will usually be found in a marriage entry:

• The names of the bride and the groom
• The ages, residence, birthplace and occupations of the bride and groom. 
• The date of your ancestors' marriage.
• The names of the  parents and their residence and occupation, if living.
  
• Whether the bride and groom were single or widowed before the marriage.
• The names of the witnesses, their ages, occupations, residence, and relationship to the bride or groom, if any.
  

The following records will usually be found in a Huwelijksbijlagen(Marriage supplement)

• Copies of birth or baptism records of bride and groom
• Military conscription record of groom, containing name, birthdate, and parents, and sometimes a physical description
• Copies of death or burial records of deceased former
• Copies of death or burial records of parents, if the marrying person is under 30(and sometimes if they are over 30)
• In earlier years(pre 1850), if both parents are dead, and they are under 30, death or burials records of grandparents.

The following records related to marriage also exist

• Marriage Intentions [Huwelijksaangiften] were made a few days before the first marriage proclamation. The couple were required to announce their intention to marry in the residence of both bride and groom. This allowed other community members the opportunity to raise any objections to the marriage. The intentions give the couple’s names, ages, marital statuses before the marriage, occupations, and residences. From 1811 to 1879 the records were combined with the marriage proclamations in one register. After 1879 they were placed in separate registers. They were not prepared in duplicate and are not indexed. Marriage intentions were discontinued in 1935.
• Marriage Proclamations [Huwelijksafkondigingen], also called marriage banns, were published for two weeks in a row. They provide the couple’s names, ages, marital statuses before the marriage, occupations, and residences. They also give the names of the parents and their occupations, residences, and marital statuses. Like the marriage intentions, the proclamations were not prepared in duplicate and are not indexed. They were kept in the same register as the intentions until 1879 and were discontinued in 1935.
• Marriage Consents [Huwelijkstoestemmingen]. Parents were normally present at the wedding and stated that they gave their consent for the couple to marry. If parents were absent, their written permission would be included with the marriage supplements. Beginning in 1913, separate registers were used to record the parents’ permission for the bride and groom to marry.

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  A Marriage record from 1901

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Echtscheidingen / Divorces

Divorce cases are handled by the district courts. A record of the divorce will be recorded at the back of the marriage register of the municipality where the couple lived at the time of their divorce. For large cities in later years they will be in separate registers. There is usually a note in the margin of the original marriage record. Divorces before the 20th century were uncommon.

Overlijden / Deaths

Death records are especially helpful because they may provide important information on a person’s birth, spouse, and parents. Civil death records often exist for individuals whom there are no birth or marriage records for. Deaths were usually registered within three days of the death in the municipality where the person died. If the deceased person was not a resident of that town, often a copy would be sent to that person's residence.

The following information will usually be found in a death record

• The names of the deceased
• The date of death.
• The names of the deceased's parents.
• The names of their' spouse.
• The age of the deceased at the time of death
• The place of their birth.
• The occupation of the deceased.
• The names of the witnesses, their ages, occupations, residence, and relationship if any.

Remember, married women are always recorded under their maiden surname. The informant’s name (often a relative) is also given.
Information about parents, the birth date and birthplace of the deceased, and other information in a death record may be inaccurate since the person who gave the information may not have had complete information.

Children who died before the declaration of birth was made, are recorded as stillborn and are found only in the death records. This also means that when a child is recorded as stillborn it may not necessarily be true, as a birth had to be recorded within 3 days of birth. In other words, if the child died within those three days, it would most likely not be recorded in the birth records. When looking for a stillborn child you may have to look in the index under 'L' for 'Levenloos' (stillborn),

Those people who were born without a fixed surname are probably recorded under a patronymic or were "given" a surname posthumously, often based on the farm they were born at or lived at.

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  A Death record from 1922

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  Dutch Transcription

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Overlijden/ Deaths after 1940

The Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie or cbg has records of everyone who has died since 1940.

Finding Birth, Marriage and Death records

If the record is on WieWasWie

Many births, marriages and death records after 1811 have been put on WieWasWie or English Version . WieWasWie is the premier site for Netherlands genealogy, containing 109 million records as of July 2015, available free of charge.

Nearly every marriage record from 1811-1932 has been put online, as well as most death records from 1811-1962 and some births from 1811-1912. Some marriages up to 1939, deaths up to 1964 and births up to 1914 have also been added.

To find what is on WieWasWie, use their page WatZitErIn. It lists what is available for each gemeente(municipality). If you know the place but not the municipality find the place on Zoekakten and click at the top 'algemene info.

WatZitErIn also indicates whether scans of the records are available on WieWasWie. Note that sometimes the link to the scan actually links to the first act of the year.

If the record of interest is on WieWasWie and the scan is also there, it is relatively easy to find online.

If the scan is not online, note the place, municipality and act number and use Zoekakten to access the record. Remember to save a copy of the image.

If the record is not on WieWasWie

There are alternatives to WieWasWie

• Geneaknowhow. Click on the province on the left side of the page. The places in the province are then arranged in alphabetical order. For some places there are local indexes and family reconstructions offered by local historical and genealogical societies.

Otherwise you will have to use 1 Year and 10 Year indexes. The births, marriages and deaths are generally separate. These are both available on Zoekakten.The one year indexes are located at the end of each year's records. Ten year tables are located separately. The names will be alphabetically, though sometimes only the first letter is alphabetized. It will have the date of the record, though not the act number. Only the name of the main people(child, bride and grooms, deceased) will be included.

At the top of the page for each province on Zoekakten will be an 'algemene' page. This may contain indexes for longer time periods and geopgraphical areas(sometimes even the whole province)

Once you have used these methods to find a record, you can find the image of the original record on Zoekakten.

General Advice

Remember that some names are very common. Don't assume that just because the names match that it is the same person. Marriage Supplements are especially useful to eliminate these sort of errors, as they indicate the exact date of births and deaths.

Additional steps for marriages

Always view the Marriage supplements after you have found a marriage using Zoekakten. Note the aktenummer(act number) of the marriage record, for the supplements are arranged in order of number. In some places the number is placed prominently in the corner of the image on a white card(added by the film taker). In most places each marriage has a title page giving the number, groom, and number of pages(not necessarily the number of images) . Finding the record you are after can be a long process, but it is worth it. As a general rule when searching, each marriage takes 5-6 images. Use this, the month, and the act number(Zoekakten often has the number of marriages that year displayed), to make an estimate of where to look first. Zoekakten and WieWasWie have began a partnership to index Marriage supplements, making them far easier to browse.

Wiki articles describing online collections are found at:

• Netherlands, Gelderland Province Civil Registration (FamilySearch Historical Records)
• Netherlands Civil Registration (FamilySearch Historical Records)
• Netherlands, Zuid-Holland Province Civil Registration (FamilySearch Historical Records)