Finding your Dutch ancestors

First, find the gemeente and its province

Dutch civil records are kept by municipality (gemeente), and the archives that now hold the older registers are organised by region and province. You need both: the name of the gemeente and the province it is in. There are 12 provinces.

A village is often one of several places inside a larger gemeente, and it is that gemeente's registers you need. The national statistics office, CBS, publishes a table of places of residence (woonplaatsen) that gives, for each place, the name of its gemeente and its province: 2,501 places in 342 gemeenten on 1 January 2025.

Many gemeenten no longer exist. The Netherlands had 1,144 gemeenten in 1812 and 1,249 in 1820, the highest number ever; after two centuries of mergers there are 342. When gemeenten merge, at least one of them is abolished, so the records of your ancestor's village may be filed under a gemeente whose name has disappeared from today's map. Search under the old name as well as the new one.

• CBS lists every gemeente that existed on 1 January of each year since 1991, with its province.
• For older changes, the independent site Gemeentegeschiedenis shows each gemeente by year on a map. Its dataset, listed in the Dutch Digital Heritage Network's register, draws on the Repertorium van Nederlandse gemeenten vanaf 1812 by Ad van der Meer and Onno Boonstra and covers 1812 to the present.

Names. In several provinces families used patronymics (the father's first name plus a word for son or daughter) until the early 19th century; after that, everyone had to adopt a fixed surname. A married woman's legal name did not change, so official records name her under her maiden surname.

Civil registers (burgerlijke stand) since 1811

Civil registration (burgerlijke stand) was introduced gradually in the Netherlands in 1811, and in the province of Limburg from 1796. FamilySearch notes that in Limburg and parts of Zeeland it began as early as 1795, and that by 1 March 1811 all births, marriages and deaths had to be recorded by the civil authorities. Each record (akte) was written in two copies: one stayed with the gemeente, the other went to the district court.

Marriage supplements (huwelijksbijlagen). The papers filed with a marriage are mostly copies of other records about the couple: FamilySearch lists copies of the bride's and groom's birth or baptism records, death records of parents or of a former spouse, and the groom's military conscription record. From 1933 only the supplements to some special records were kept.

Ten-year indexes (tienjarige tafels). Each gemeente's records were indexed by name, ten years at a time. Use them to find the exact date before you look for the record.

Search them online: WieWasWie and the regional archives

Civil records become public after a fixed time, depending on the type of record: birth records after 100 years, marriage records after 75 years and death records after 50 years. Public records are kept at the regional and municipal archives, and many are indexed online, often with images of the original. The Zeeuws Archief, for example, says birth records are public up to 1913, marriage records up to 1938 and death records up to 1963.

• WieWasWie ("Who was who") is the database of the CBG, the Dutch Centre for Family History, built from local archives throughout the Netherlands: more than 230 million sets of personal details, from church, civil and population registers, militia registers and Holland America Line passenger lists. The simple search is free and you can open the original document; an advanced search costs €19.95 a year.
• Open Archives (OpenArchieven) is a private service of the company Coret Genealogie, with about 369 million person records from some 200 archives and associations. Some search features are free; it also sells a subscription.
• The regional archives' own websites may have records or images that are not on WieWasWie. FamilySearch notes that each province has a provincial archive in its capital, and most large towns have a municipal archive. Some examples:
  • Gelders Archief (Gelderland): search the genealogical database under Personen zoeken. Scans of documents not yet online can be requested free through its Scanning on Demand service, and it aims to publish them within three weeks.
  • BHIC (Noord-Brabant): the genealogical search has an English interface, and scans of records with a scanning-on-request button are a free service.
  • Zeeuws Archief (Zeeland): the Zeeland Ancestors database holds almost ten million personal data from more than 40 groups of sources.
  • AlleFriezen (Friesland), run by Tresoar, Historisch Centrum Leeuwarden and the Historisch Informatiecentrum Noordoost Fryslân with the Frisian municipal archives, covers people born, married or deceased in the province from the 16th century to the early 1960s.

An index is a finding aid: always read the record itself, and cite the original register, not the website.

Population registers (from 1850) and personal cards

From 1 January 1850 every gemeente had to keep a population register (bevolkingsregister). Each household is described, including relatives, boarders and servants living with it, with dates and places of birth, marital status, religion, occupation, and the dates people moved in, moved away or died. FamilySearch notes that the registers also give the date of arrival in the gemeente and the previous residence, which lets you follow a family from place to place. The registers are in the municipal or regional archive; many are indexed on WieWasWie and the archives' websites.

Between 1909 and 1920 gemeenten switched to loose family cards (gezinskaarten), and from 1939 to personal cards (persoonskaarten). Personal cards are not public.

Personal cards from the CBG. The CBG keeps the National Register of the Deceased (NRO) for the Dutch government: the personal cards of people who died between 1939 and 1 October 1994, and personal lists (persoonslijsten) for people who died after that. A card gives the official names of the person, the parents, partners and children, birth, marriage and death information, addresses, and on cards the occupation and nationality. Addresses are given only when the death was more than twenty years ago. The data may be used only for historical research, including family history.

Order an extract with the CBG's online form. From 1 January 2026 each search costs €4.65, and you pay for the search even if nothing is found. The CBG says to expect the result within three working days; you download it in your free Mijn CBG account. Use it for a relative who stayed in the Netherlands, or for an emigrant who came back.

Recent records: ask the gemeente

Records that are not yet public are kept by the gemeente where they were drawn up, and you ask that gemeente for a copy, even if you have never lived there. There are two kinds:

• An extract (uittreksel) gives only the personal details from the record. By law anyone may ask for an extract of a birth, marriage or death record, but it does not show the person's parentage.
• A full copy (afschrift) is a copy of the record, stamped and signed by the registrar. Of a birth, marriage or death record, a full copy is given only if you show a legitimate interest (gerechtvaardigd belang).

Each request must be about a named person or persons. Gemeenten set their own forms and fees. The Hague, for example, gives a copy of someone else's record only to a child or grandchild, a parent or grandparent (not a brother or sister), an heir, a spouse or registered partner, a legal representative, or someone with written authorisation or who needs it for a court case or a marriage; it charges €17.80 plus postage. If you descend from a more distant relative, say so and ask what proof the gemeente needs.

For family history you rarely need this route: most records of emigrants and their parents are already past the 100, 75 or 50 years and can be read at the regional archive.

Before 1811: church records (DTB)

Before civil registration, the churches kept the records. Baptism, marriage and burial registers are known together as DTB (doop, trouw, begraven). Church communities recorded baptisms from the 16th century, and the DTB registers are the main source for births, marriages and deaths from about 1550 to 1811. Burial registers usually start later, often well into the 1700s, and in some places nothing survives from before 1700.

• Baptisms give the child's name, the date, the parents' names (at least the father's), witnesses or godparents.
• Marriages give the names of the bride and groom, the date, their marital status, witnesses, birthplaces or residences, and the date of the banns.
• Burials give the date, the name of the deceased and the spouse, sometimes the age, and for children the parents.

In most towns everyone, whatever their religion, married before the Dutch Reformed Church, and the banns (ondertrouw) were recorded in the places where both bride and groom lived; the marriage itself only in the bride's. Catholic records are in Latin, and a Catholic parish often served the surrounding villages, so your ancestor may appear in a nearby town.

The DTB registers are mostly in the regional and provincial archives, and are indexed on WieWasWie and the archives' websites.

Emigrants: the 1848 to 1877 lists and where they went

Lists of emigrants (landverhuizers). Each year, municipalities listed the people leaving for North America and other overseas regions; the provinces collected the lists and sent them to the Minister of the Interior. An entry gives personal details, social class, the household, the reason for emigrating and the presumed destination. The original table for 1848 to 1877 is in the Nationaal Archief in The Hague, which has a name index online; the CBG says the scans can be searched on FamilySearch. The lists are incomplete: only single emigrants and heads of families were recorded, and some emigrants never reported that they were leaving.

Some regional archives have longer series: the Collectie Overijssel's runs to 1919. The Zeeuws Archief's Zeeland Ancestors includes emigrants taken from lists of emigrants and population registers, with a ready-made search for those who registered to travel to Michigan. To use a provincial list you need to know where the emigrant lived before leaving.

Passenger lists. Nineteenth-century passenger lists are no longer available in the Netherlands, and many Dutch emigrants sailed from other ports, such as Le Havre, Antwerp or Bremen. For 1900 to 1969, lists of the Holland America Line can be searched on WieWasWie and at the Rotterdam City Archives.

After the Second World War. The Nationaal Archief has an index of emigration cards of Dutch emigrants to Australia, 1946 to 1991 (only partly open to the public). The CBG also points to the list Dutch Emigrants to North America, 1946-1963.

The CBG names the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa as popular destinations. The official arrival tables shown on this site's map count:

Figures: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Yearbook of Immigration Statistics 2019, table 2; Australian Department of Home Affairs, Historical Migration Statistics (country of last residence to 1959, then country of birth); Statistics Canada, table 17-10-0010-01. Each country counts in its own way: compare with care.

Writing to the gemeente or a regional archive

For a record that is already public (births over 100 years old, marriages over 75, deaths over 50), write to the regional or municipal archive that serves the town, after checking its website: many records are online, and archives such as Gelders Archief and BHIC scan records on request free of charge. For a more recent record, write to the gemeente where the record was drawn up and ask for a full copy (afschrift), since an extract (uittreksel) does not show the parents. Give the full name, the date and place of the event and the parents' names, explain that you are a descendant researching your family history, and ask which proof of relationship and which fee they need. Several regional archives have English pages and answer questions by email or contact form: BHIC invites questions by telephone, e-mail (vragen@bhic.nl) and live chat, and Gelders Archief says it replies within three working days. We suggest writing in Dutch, or in English with a short Dutch summary.

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