For researching your family tree, you work your way from the present, back into the past. Starting with yourself, you go on to your parents, grandparents, great grandparents and so on. When using the archive sources, there is usually a distinction between four periods:
- 20th Century to date;
- 1796 to the 20th Century, the period of the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages;
- Before 1796, the period of the church registers - the Ancien Régime;
- Before the church registers.
today and the 20th century
Your first step for genealogy research should always be within your family circle. Start by asking your parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins for all sorts of documents such as marriage certificates, birth announcement cards, communion cards, obituary cards, diplomas, letters and photographs. Address books, phone books or newspapers (often in the library available on microfiche) can also be useful. In addition to paper documentation, the memories of your family members are also an important source for your research. Interview them and write down as many details and names as possible, which could be relevant for you family history.
Going back further into time, you should realise that most of our archives only contain formal official data. Furthermore, the privacy protection policy of archive services means that you cannot access information regarding still-living individuals or recent events. In the Netherlands, archives are only transferred to public archives after 20 years. Even then, this does not automatically mean that they are open for public consultation. Documents of birth, marriage and death and archives with personal information of still-living individuals may remain protected for much longer. In practice, this means that genealogy research in the archives will only be useful with a link to your ancestors from before 1900.
In addition to the obstacle of privacy regulations, you may also come across the redivision of municipalities in Limburg in the 19th and 20th Century. No need to worry. There are good overviews of the current municipalities in Limburg as well as summaries of the redivisions and annexations.
1796-20th century
After exhausting your family circle and the relevant literature for information, you can then turn to the Registry of births, marriages and deaths starting in 1796 and the other nineteenth and twentieth century archive sources. There is a great amount of source material in this period for genealogists to search to their heart's content for information. Due to the fact that the land of the province of Limburg belonged to France between 1795 and 1815, the modern government administration here begins much earlier than in the rest of the Netherlands. This is how the first document of the Registry of births, marriages and deaths was drawn up on July 4, 1796 by the municipal officer of Margraten. This is the oldest document of this registry in the whole of the Netherlands. Therefore, since the French period and the introduction of the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages (1796 in Southern Limburg, 1802 in Northern Limburg) there are many archive sources. Many of these sources have been digitized or are accessible by name.
In the oldest documents of the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Limburg, you will come across a 'strange' method of dating. In the period 1796-1805 the French Republican calendar was used in Limburg. That is why you will find dates that don't seem to make much sense in the documents. You can translate these into the dates of the present-day calendar with the conversion table.
- calendar conversion table
- also check out the WieWasWie website
before 1796, the period of the church registers: the Ancien Régime
Searching for your ancestors in genealogy from before 1800 is a lot different than in the period after 1800. The province of Limburg did not yet exist then. The political division in the Maasdal was split up, meaning that each area now had its own rules. Family names did not have set spelling. Moreover, there were many patronymics in Middle and North Limburg. The period of the ‘Ancien Régime’ (before 1796) is a time in which genealogical research must be conducted very differently. First, the church registers should be consulted. These begin in Limburg at the end of the 16th or the beginning of the 17th century. You should take into account that the registrations in the church registers are almost always recorded in Latin. In this case, there are useful vocabulary lists with the most frequently used words with their translations.
The first source that you should turn to for this period are the church registers of baptisms, marriages and deaths or funerals. Research in church registers requires a different approach than is needed for the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. A good example is marriage registration. The Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages provides a lot of information in the marriage enclosures regarding the bride and groom, and their parents. The church registers do not usually mention the parents of the bride and groom. For much research, this signifies the beginning of the end.
Another source for your research is the archives of the Benches of Aldermen. Until the end of the eighteenth century, the Bench of Aldermen was the only form of local goverment. The Bench of Aldermen, as town council, had an administrative responsibility (such as tax levies, etc.) and a legal responsibility as court house in criminal and civil cases (such as debt claims).
before the church registers
The church registers were only established by the council of Trente in 1563. It is still possible for many families from Limburg to trace their family tree history back to the late Middle Ages. This does however require thorough, sound research. The farther back in time you go, the more difficult the archive research will become. Once you get as far as the period before 1600 there are no longer church registers or civil population registrations. The archive sources become more and more scarce. From this point onwards, it is only possible to conduct your research in all sorts of different archives. On a positive note: the archive depots are full of them! It is advisable to become familiar with the archives during your research, and to have good knowledge of paleography, of german, french and possibly Latin, and of assisting sciences such as historic chronology.
the next step
Delen
Made by zuiderlicht