after 1811

In the early 19th century, the Netherlands (being conquered by Napoleon Bonaparte) were made a French province. In 1811, a civil registry was installed (in the southern provinces Limburg and Zeeland this had already been the case in 1795).

In the provinces of Noord- and Zuid-Holland and in the cities, most people did have a surname yet. All the others now  were required by law to choose one. Especially in the north-east of the country (provinces of Groningen and Friesland) many people refused, or did not take the matter seriously, leading to "funny" names or to people belonging to the same family with different surnames. 

civil registry

The civil registry (Burgelijke stand) records 2 events in the life of every person: birth and death. Also marriages are recorded. The records yield the following information:

Birth:  the name of the child, date and time of birth, names of the parents, (sometimes) their age, (sometimes) profession of the father, address of parents.

Death: the name of the deceased, date and time of death, (sometimes) profession of the deceased, (often) names of the parents, (often) the name of the spouse(s), address of the deceased.

Marriage: the names of the spouses, their age,  their professions, the names of their parents and their professions.

Annex to the marriage register (huwelijkse bijlagen): This is the richest source for genealogists. In order to get married, one had to hand over a lot of documents, which have been preserved in most cases. The annexes consist of: copies of birth records for both spouses, a statement from the military giving the husband consent to get married (this document states whether the husband has served in the military, often it also gives his appearence, as passport photographs had not been invented yet), (if applicable) death record(s) of previous spouse(s), (if applicable) death record(s) of parent(s).

census

In some municipalities, censuses were held between 1795 and 1840. Also in later centuries, censuses have been held, but these have not been made public. E.g. from the census in 1947, only the number of people with a given surname living in a given municipality has been made public, more information cannot be looked up. 

From the records, so-called "ten year tables" have been made, this is an index (of  surnames) of all births, deaths, or marriages in a given municipality in a ten year period. 

population register

In 1850, the population register was started. It is a list of all persons living in a municipality in a ten year period, e.g. 1870 - 1880, together with their family. 

The advantage over a census is that one finds in one record all of the people living in the same house, and if the family entered or left the municipality, one can find at which date and where they came from or went to. 

The population register is a house-by-house register, but many registers have been indexed on surname. 

family cards

The family cards entered in the 1890's and served until 1938. The cards are sorted by municipality and indexed on surname of the head of the family (a husband or a widow). The children belonging to a family and still living with their parents can be found on the card, but cannot be found in the index.

persoonskaarten

In 1938, IBM has sold a semi-automated system to the Dutch government. All people were to receive their own personal card, a "persoonskaart". It gives detailed information on birth, marriage, death, parents, spouses, children, addresses, and also of religion.

This last feature helped the Germans in the Second World War to find where the Jewish people lived in the Netherlands. Many of the older cards, especially in Amsterdam, were burnt or blown up by the resistance, but this did not help enough: only a small percentage of the Dutch-Jewish people survived the war.

The system has now been transformed into an electronic system (Gemeentelijke Basis Administratie, or GBA), but has remained basically the same since 1939. The records become public 3 years after one's death.