Almost 2.5 million records added to Record Search

FamilySearch's Record Search has added nearly 2.5 million images of the Netherlands, Zuid-Holland Province Civil Registrations from 1811 to 1942 and additional records to the Netherlands, Gelderland Province Civil Registrations from 1811 to 1950.

The Netherlands Civil Registrations began when the French emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, introduced the civil registration in the Netherlands at the time of the French occupation in the late 1700s; first in the southern part of the country later in the rest of the country. Since March of 1811 the local civil authorities in Zuid-Holland and Gelderland began recording births, marriages, and deaths using a standard format. Two copies of the records were created; one stayed in the local registration district; the second was sent annually to the district court. The district court created the “ten-year” indexes and eventually deposited the records and ten-year indexes in the provincial archives. See FamilySearch Research Wiki.