GuidedResearch:Why Can't I Find the Record - Netherlands Births

This page will give you additional guidance and resources to find birth information for your ancestor. Use this page after first completing the birth section of the Netherlands Guided Research page.

Church records are the main sources for births, marriages and deaths in the Netherlands between about 1550 and 1811. In the late 1500s Churches began to mandate that registers of baptisms and marriages were kept. Burials were often not recorded at first. Records do not always exist for the period before 1700. Some records have been lost. By 1 March 1811, all births, marriages and deaths had to be recorded by the civil authorities of each municipality.

Additional Nationwide Databases and Online Resources

 * 1811-1900s: Netherlands Vital and Church Records ''' at WieWasWie - contains earlier dates but incomplete

Additional Province Databases and Online Resources
To search these additional databases you need to know the province your ancestor came from. Note: New rights-to-privacy laws may require you to agree to user conditions before you can access records.

Additional Records with Birth Information
Substitute records can contain information about more than one event, and are used when records for an event are not available. Because the substitute records may not be created at the time of the event, it may contain incorrect information. Search for as many substitute records as possible to corroborate information found in substitute records to help improve accuracy.

Tips for finding births
Success with finding birth records in online databases depends on a few key points:
 * Your ancestor's name may misspelled. Try the following search tactics:
 * Try different spelling variations of the first and last name of your ancestor.
 * Leave out surname prefixes such as "de", "van", "van der" etc.
 * Try a given name search (leave out the last names)
 * Use wild cards, if possible, to represent phonetic variants, especially for surname endings. Example: "-bach" could also be spelled "bag" or "bagh".
 * Consider phonetic equivalents that may be used interchangeably, such as "F" and "V"; "C", "K", and "G"


 * Expand the date range of the search.
 * Try searching with the province name only instead of by the town.
 * If your ancestor's name is common, try adding more information to narrow the search.

Known Record Gaps
Records Start
 * Civil registration of birth in the Netherlands began in 1811. Some civil birth records exist from 1795 on. Church records generally started in the 17th Century, but actual record availability varies by locality.

Records destroyed
 * Floods and wars were the leading cause of destruction for church records. Civil registration records are generally complete, with few exceptions.