There is a long history of the Jews in the
Netherlands, going well back into the 1400's. The communities were large and for the most part prosperous, made up of both
Sephardic and
Ashkenazic Jews.
FamilySearch has now added the
Civil Registration records from
1679-1942 for the
Province of Zuid-Holland to its Historical Records Collections. As of today only a small portion of the
5.4 million images have been name search able but as more records are indexed that number will increase as well.
The collection
includes civil registration of
births, marriages, and deaths.
Indexes,
marriage intentions, marriage proclamations, marriage supplements, and
divorces are also included.
For a list of records by localities and dates currently published in this collection, select the
Browse link from the collection landing page.The records themselves give some good information, depending on the year of the record.
The record below is for the birth of
Louiza Cohen, who was born on the
8th day of January in 1892 in
Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands.
The record also tells us that her birth was registered on the next day, the 9th, also in Rotterdam. We now know that her parents were
Jacob Cohen and his wife Eva. The record also tells us that her father was 33 when she was born, which would give us a year of birth as
1859. That same information for the mother was not provided. For those with ancestry in the Netherlands this collection could be of great help in finding your ancestors.
