The Netherlands Genealogy

Guide to Netherlands ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, and military records.

Country Information
The Netherlands is a country in Western Europe bordered by Germany and Belgium. The official national language is Dutch.

Finding Your Ancestors' Town in the Netherlands

 * Genealogical records are organized by geographical locality. Civil registration (government birth, marriage, and death records) and church records (christenings/baptisms, marriages, and burials) were kept at the local level. To search these records, you must know the town were your ancestors lived.
 * If you do not know your ancestors' town, follow the advice in the Wiki article, The Netherlands Finding Town of Origin, to search a variety of records that might provide that information.

The Netherlands Clickable Map
To visit the page of a province, click either on the province on the map or the name listed in the Provinces section below.

Provinces
The Netherlands consists of twelve provinces, the last one - Flevoland - was created from part of the former Zuider Zee/IJsselmeer on 1 January 1986.

Municipalities
The second tier of jurisdiction and the one most relevant for genealogy, especially after 1811, is the gemeente (municipality). There are currently 393 of them, down from about 1200 in 1811. Links to pages listing municipalities and the towns within them can be found on the page for the relevant province.

FamilySearch Resources
Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in researching your family.
 * Facebook Communities - Facebook groups discussing genealogy research
 * Dutch Genealogy - Facebook group specifically discusing Dutch Genealogy (Ein nglish)
 * Historical Records
 * Family History Center locator map

Research Tutorials

 * Search page
 * Dutch Research Before 1811
 * Gazetteers and Maps for Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands
 * Finding Your Family in the Amsterdam City Archives
 * Using the Dutch Website: WieWasWie
 * WieWasWie, Past the index: What to do next
 * Names in Belgium and the Netherlands
 * Reading Dutch Handwritten Records
 * Lesson 1: The Dutch Alphabet
 * Lesson 2: Dutch Words and Dates
 * Lesson 3: Reading Dutch Records