Since the outbreak of the corona pandemic, many organizations chose to turn their (annual) events into virtual happenings. In the last few weeks we spoke a lot about research in the Netherlands in webinars, talkshows, and other online meetings. One of the most frequently asked questions is: which websites do we use for our research? Well, there are many and the following list is not exhaustive. But here is our top 25!
Where possible we linked to pages that are in English.
Websites for collections on a national level
- Nationaal Archief (National Archives)
- WieWasWie
- Open Archieven
- Archieven.nl
- Geneaknowhow
- Delpher
- Nederlandse Familienamenbank
Websites for collections on a provincial level
- Drenthe: Alle Drenten
- Friesland: Alle Friezen
- Gelderland: Gelders Archief
- Groningen: Alle Groningers
- Limburg: Alle Limburgers
- Noord-Brabant: Brabants Historisch Informatie Centrum
- Noord-Holland: Noord-Hollands Archief
- Overijssel: Historisch Centrum Overijssel
- Utrecht: Het Utrechts Archief
- Zeeland: Zeeuws Archief
Please note that the National Archives in The Hague holds the provincial archives of Zuid-Holland.

The largest cities
- Stadsarchief Amsterdam
- Stadsarchief Rotterdam
- Haags Gemeentearchief (‘s-Gravenhage / Den Haag / The Hague)
Please note that Het Utrechts Archief holds the municipal archives of the city of Utrecht.
Overseas (former) parts of the kingdom
Image collections
- Nationaal Archief (National Archives)
- Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed
International databases
Please note that three international websites also offer a lot of Dutch records: FamilySearch, Ancestry and MyHeritage. We believe it is good practice to use their collections in addition to the Dutch databases and websites that are mentioned in this article.