Dutch genealogy has many pitfalls for researchers from an Anglo-Saxon background. Little things that are just different from what you would expect. We discuss some important issues here that you should be aware of during your research. Most of them related to names, dates, places and language. Names Infixes Names starting with Van, Vander, De etc. Infixes (tussenvoegsel in Dutch) are seperate words, not capitalized, and ignored when sorting: van Kampen, van den Berg, de Jong (sorted under K, B and J respectively). Many Dutch genealogy search...
read moreThe death certificate of Catharina Johanna Maria Foppen If you have studied Reading and understanding Dutch birth certificates and have a copy of the Dutch genealogy dictionary, you should be able to understand most Dutch records. As an exercise, translate the death certificate below. Use your dictionary and the Dutch genealogy dictionary, but try not to look at the solution below yet. The certificate, death record 86 of the year 1912, municipality Gorinchem, is the death record of Catharina Johanna Maria Foppen, the wife of Pieter Johannes...
read moreDutch birth records from 19th century registers have a relatively constant form. Reading and understanding these is a skill that you can learn, even if you don’t speak Dutch. With practice, patience, perseverance, and a good dictionary, you can understand most birth records, even though you won’t be able to understand every word. I have compiled and translated a list of Dutch words and phrases found in Dutch genealogy records. Many of these words and phrases are not in your Dutch dictionary, but you may still encounter them in...
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