Archives in Zuid-Holland and Genlias

Zuid-Holland is one of the largest and most densely populated provinces in the Netherlands. Because of its large population, the province has a great number of big towns which, owing to their rich histories, often have their own archives departments. On the other hand, the province does not have its own national archive service or Regional History Centre (RHC). In Zuid-Holland, this function is fulfilled by the Nationaal Archief.

Zuid-Holland was one of the last provinces to set up an organisation for Genlias. It is fairly self-evident that a province that has large municipal archives departments and at the same time has made a rather late start on introducing Genlias, has in some cases already supplied the need for genealogical information in a different way. For example, some municipalities and district archives maintain websites to supply their genealogical material. In addition to municipalities with their own archives departments and those that are associated with district archives, there are also municipalities without archives departments.

In the course of 2003, all of the archives departments in Zuid-Holland were invited to cooperate on Genlias. A large number of colleagues have reacted positively. This has led to the following general classification:

1. Municipalities cooperating on the Genlias project.
2. Municipalities that are cooperating on the Genlias project but are also maintaining their own solution.
3. Municipalities that are maintaining their own solution and are not cooperating on Genlias.
4. Municipalities without their own archives department.

In the last case, the Nationaal Archief will make every effort to provide the genealogical data of these municipalities in Genlias. In the long term, it will be possible to consult all genealogical data referring to Zuid-Holland on the Internet in one way or another.

In Genlias, every participant has its own web page that you can open via the list of participants (The organisations behind Genlias). An extra column has been added to the list of municipalities in Genlias (Actual content), which shows in abbreviated form the archives department that manages the data of the municipality in question. If you wish to order, or if you have any questions or comments about this municipality, you must contact the archives department concerned.

There are two overview maps available showing the municipalities for which data is present in Genlias:
Overview map of Zuid-Holland around 1865.
Overview map of Zuid-Holland around 1950.