Genealogy

Would you like to know more about the history of a given family? Using the form below, you can access a large number of genealogical sources, such as birth certificates or address books. This will hopefully help you to discover more about people from the past.

Before you begin

  • You do not need to fill in all the fields.
  • By filling in only a surname, you may get a thousand results.
  • Leave ‘Role’ empty unless you are certain of the role of the person you are looking for.
  • Leave ‘Source’ empty unless you are certain of the archive from which you want the information.
  • After you have entered the information, click on the button ‘Search for persons’ at the bottom.
  • The results will be shown in Dutch.

Genealogy

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FAQ genealogy

You can use the form on our website to search in a number of fields. Once you are in the results screen, you can filter the results further or search again in the search screen that is now available. There you can also search for two or more persons within the same deed by clicking on the plus icon in the search form.

Use wildcards if you do not know part of the search term or if there are several possible spellings.

  • The asterisk (*) replaces any number of characters in the search term.
  • For example: searching for ‘El*beth’ will return both Elsbeth and Elisabeth.
  • The question mark (?) replaces 1 letter in the search term.
  • For example: searching for ‘Jan?’ will return both Jan and Jans.
     
  • ‘OR’ between two search terms will return results with one or both words
  • for example: ‘wine merchant OR baker’ will return results containing one or both search terms
  • the $ (dollar sign) before a search term will return results that are similar
  • for example: ‘$mulder’ will return mulder as well as muller, mulders or ulder
     

The search results are sorted by ‘last change’ (the date the deed was entered). Click on another option (first name, last name, role, place or date) to change this.

Refine (filter) the search results by choosing an option in the right-hand column. Click on the red cross to remove a filter.

For privacy reasons, some records are only released after a certain period of time:
-  death certificates after 50 years, 
-  marriage certificates after 75 years 
-  birth certificates only after 100 years. 

Registers that cover multiple years are only made available once the latest year has been released. The following resources are included in the genealogical database:

  • The baptism, marriage and burial registers (period 1573-1811) of Rotterdam
  • The civil registry of Rotterdam, Albrandswaard, Barendrecht, Lansingerland and Ridderkerk: birth, marriage and death certificates from 1811 onwards. 
  • The Rotterdam population register: including family registration cards (period 1850-1940)
  • The militia registers (period 1814-1902)
  • The arrest cards from the Second World War (period 1940-1945)
  • The person you are searching for has not been released yet. Civil registry documents are not brought directly to the City Archives, but transfered after the following periods have elapsed:
    • birth certificates: after 100 years
    • marriage certificates: after 75 years
    • death certificates: after 50 years
  • Only the heads of households are included on the family cards, as well as anyone with a different surname at the same address. If you are searching for resident children, you should try searching by the father's or mother's surname
  • You do not know the (full) first name(s). In this case, use the wildcard * in the ‘first name’ search field.
  • The person you are looking for is missing or was buried (after a disaster) without being identified. In these cases, no death certificate could be drawn up.
  • In some cases the name recorded will have a spelling mistake in it, and may not be the same as the name you are entering. 

There are often scans of the original certificates. If you cannot find any scans, please come by to view the document on microfiche.

You can request certificates that have not yet been transferred to the City Archives via the Rotterdam municipal website(link is external). The regional municipalities of Albrandswaard, Barendrecht, Lansingerland and Ridderkerk do not always transfer the certificates immediately.

Between 1850 and 1880, residents of Rotterdam were repeatedly registered and deregistered when they moved, even within the same city. Everyone was also reregistered when new registers were started. When the population registers were made accessible, the names, dates of birth and places of birth of all the persons mentioned were copied. As a result, persons who were crossed out and then registered again appear several times in the search results.

Please contact us via our contact form and we will do our best to help you further.