I have started this page to help people foreign to Belgium in their search for ancestors and am trying to answer their most frequent and recurring questions in forums like genforum and ancestry.com
Places
and maps
Privacy
laws
Research
at home from a distance
Addresses
and phonenumbers, check spelling of a name
Distribution
of a particular familyname in Belgium
Links
Other
A few general remarks.
Several places have a Flemish AND a French name and large cities sometimes an English and a German.
Examples are (Brussel,Bruxelles,Brussels,Brüssel) and (Antwerpen,Anvers,Antwerp,Antwerpen). Some listOver time the way names were written has changed:
Tildonk was Thildonck, Merksem was Merxem in long foregone times, Kortenberg was Cortenbergh.Decennies ago there were many more villages than now, many villages have been included in larger entities and are now merely hamlets of districts in larger cities. De Rouck's street finder (hereunder) contains lists of communes that have been included in others. An internet search engine may help too. The local version of google is www.google.be
Sometimes placenames known to descendants have letters interchanged (mostly only two or so). Having sufficient detailed maps helps !
Links to Belgian cities and communes
General list
in Flanders : http://www.cipal.be/drv/ASP/gemwebs/default.asp?scherm=groot
Brussels region : http://www.eurobru.com/poli30.htm
Wallonia (Southern Belgium) : http://www.uvcw.be/communes/fiches/index.cfmIn the website of the commune or city, look for "administratie" and "bevolking" or "Burgerlijke Stand" (Flemish) or for "administration" and "Etat Civil" or "population". Some local authorities may have an archive, look for "archief" or "archives".
Looking for postalcodes and places?
You can find them on http://pv.en.bpg.post.be/EN/private/default.asp
There is a quite good relation between number series of the zipcodes and areas.
The 1000 series : Brussels++ and Southern Brabant (Brabant Wallon)
2000 series : Antwerp province
3000 series : Northern Brabant (Vlaams Brabant) and Limburg province
4000 series : Liège and province
5000 series : Namur and province
6000 series : Charleroi and Hainaut and Luxemburg province
7000 series : Mons and Hainaut province
8000 series : Brugge and West-Vlaanderen
9000 series : Gent and Oost-Vlaanderen
The site works the other way too, enter a place name and you get the postcode.
Example , you enter BOEKHOUTE and you find 9961.
To have a clue where it might be, try then 9960 , 9900, 9000
9960 gives ASSENEDE, 9900 EEKLO and 9000 Gent from smaller to bigger places.
Places and streets : onlinemaps
You might try
http://www.alh.nl/alh-tng/
Click LEFT on ROUTEPLANNER
Click CENTER on LOCATIE ZOEKEN
CHOSE LAND = België, radiobutton on STRAAT and fill in PLAATS=placename
Use - to zoom out, + to zoom inhttp://www7.mappy.com/sidmAr9rtdTFaF5Xg8o/D?lang=en is another online map
REISWEG gives a path between two locations and PLATTEGROND shows a map
Still another routeplanner is http://www.planetinternet.be/routeplanner/
There are two downloadable maps of Belgium (zip-files) available on this page
VUB-map
Route.de
Michelin
Lonely Planet Map
Voyatimbres map
U Texas
Printed
maps
A good roadmap with sufficient detail (scale 1/200.000) to show all cities and communes is the MICHELIN road map.
Map # 213 covers about 3/4 of Belgium, the uttermost southeastern part is on map # 214.
Any serious bookshop should be able to order these maps.
My version of map 213 has ISBN-number 2-06-000213-3
Their webpage is www.michelin-travel.com and displays parts of these maps online.The National Geographic Institute makes and sells more detailed topographic maps on different scales. Their topographic atlas of Belgium on scale 1/50.000 [1 inch = 0.8 miles] is a good buy for roughly 50 Euro. It has an extended [up to very low level of local placenames]. To order : It's ISBN number is 90-209-4853-9. The atlas is coedited with editor Lannoo and the Touring Club of Belgium
If you would like to find any street by name and place in Belgium, the two tomes of De Rouck's streetatlas on scale 1/32000 may be something for you.
One tome [REF 801 and ISBN 90-5208-149-2] covers Northern Belgium, that is Flanders and Brussels and the other Wallonia and Brussels again [De Rouck's reference is 802, ISBN is 90-5208-152-2 ]
Database with placenames and coordinates :
Heavens-above
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If you are looking for a death certificate within the last 100 years (or birth or marriage ..), that is normally impossible.
That information is blocked unless... these are your direct ascendants and you are able to prove it to the administration in a plausible way.
What is plausible, will depend on them and in the worst case you will have to go there personally.
A (small) fee may be required for producing the copy of the document and the stamp (usually 6,50 Euro).
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You can research more than you think from a distance
The LDS church has microfilms that you may order and view in a nearby LDS center.
If you know a PLACE in Belgium and a date (approx.), you should have a look at the website of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
They have virtually all microfilms of every place in Belgium with births, marriages, deaths.
You may request the microfilms at a nearby LDS center and view them there.
To find what microfilmnumber you need, go to
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp
choose PLACE SEARCH
and if your question is about the 1800-1900 time span, go to
CIVIL REGISTRATION and look for the right filmnumber
If you don't know the exact year, please note that they made every 10 year a table of all births, marriages and deaths. You should have a look at such a table.
Also at the end (or the begin) of one year of registrations, there is also a table for that year (b, m, d)
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Finding someone who can research for you
This is a little bit harder than it looks. If you find a good amateur-researcher [say by one of the many genealogy-forums or private websites] who lives not too far from your area of interest in Belgium and if you would offer him/her compensation for his/her time, transportation and other costs, there are good chances that someone is willing to help.
Provided of course that your question is sufficient precise. Nobody would be able to find your ancestors if the only information would be something like "My g-grandfather came from Belgium, that's all I know".
The rules in Internet-genealogy-forums often prohibit offering a service for a fee or another compensation. The result being that many good amateurs just reply what they readily know, like merely indicating where some place is located in Belgium. Many people probably are a little shy or humble to start to write about this. Yet, by private contacts I found that many amateur-genealogists admit that there should be some compensation.
There are only a few professional genealogists active in Belgium. You may find some of them on the yellow pages of the phone directory (Infobel) I cannot judge them, I know in one case that the minimum fee was some 200 Euro.
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Finding addresses of (living) relatives and to check the spelling of surnames
http://www.infobel.com/belgium/
http://www.annuairemondial.com/
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Distribution of a particular familyname in Belgium
www.familienaam.be (mind to write all the letters after the first in small caps)
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Belgium Roots project 1st-visit Research-guidelines Helpdesk
Genealogical Society of Flemish Americans
Documentation Center of the Royal Army and Military History Museum
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About the Dutch (Flemish) language
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Suggestions [new links ...] or reports about broken links are very welcome.
Email is hhrvc followed by "ad" and by yahoo point com [little trick against spam].
Genealogy
in
Belgium, how to find your Ancestors in Flanders and Wallonia.
Looking for information about your g-g-grandfather in East-Flanders?
Looking for your family or families that emigrated from Antwerp ?
Belgian Genealogy help. Born in Belgium and immigrated to the US.
Finding in what province or city or commune in Belgium places are
located? Search for information about a family.
Information ancestor married parents Belgium searching for
descendants or relatives research investigations tracing
genealogical cousins
Knowledge historic roots family moved addresses immigrants.
