Record Atlas
9 eras · 1563–2026 · 528 places

Belgium and the Southern Netherlands

Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, Bruges, Liège, Namur, Hainaut, Limburg. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.

Where researchers lose records here

1795–1815 — THE HINGE OF BELGIAN RESEARCH. France annexes the ground in 1795 and civil registration — the état civil, births, marriages and deaths recorded by the commune — begins in 1796. Before that date there is no state record of a birth anywhere in the country, only a baptism. After it there are two independent series for every person, which is why Belgian research is unusually tractable.

1830–1914 — THE TRAP IS THAT THERE IS NO CENTRAL ARCHIVE TO WRITE TO. The State Archives keep the registers in provincial repositories — Antwerp, Beveren, Bruges, Ghent, Hasselt, Kortrijk, Leuven, Liège, Mons, Namur, Tournai, Arlon, Eupen — and a request addressed to Brussels for a parish in Limburg goes to the wrong building. The population registers, kept by the commune from 1846, follow a household from address to address and are the other half of the work.

Whose archive this ground was

YearsWho held itWhose archive that means
1563–1713 Spanish Netherlands Rijksarchief / Archives de l'État · FamilySearch

Parish registers begin after Trent and the good ones reach the sixteenth century. They are the ONLY record of a birth for the next two hundred years — there is no state register behind them.
1713–1795 Austrian Netherlands Rijksarchief / Archives de l'État · FamilySearch

The sovereign changes and the record-keeping does not: the parish goes on keeping the book. A researcher looking for an Austrian imperial series for these years is looking for something that was never created.
1795–1815 French annexation Rijksarchief / Archives de l'État · FamilySearch · Geneanet

THE HINGE OF BELGIAN RESEARCH. France annexes the ground in 1795 and civil registration — the état civil, births, marriages and deaths recorded by the commune — begins in 1796. Before that date there is no state record of a birth anywhere in the country, only a baptism. After it there are two independent series for every person, which is why Belgian research is unusually tractable.
1815–1830 United Kingdom of the Netherlands Rijksarchief / Archives de l'État · WieWasWie / Open Archieven · FamilySearch

Fifteen years under The Hague, and the civil registers run unbroken through them. Material of these years can sit on either side of a border that did not exist yet.
1830–1914 Kingdom of Belgium Rijksarchief / Archives de l'État · FamilySearch · Geneanet

THE TRAP IS THAT THERE IS NO CENTRAL ARCHIVE TO WRITE TO. The State Archives keep the registers in provincial repositories — Antwerp, Beveren, Bruges, Ghent, Hasselt, Kortrijk, Leuven, Liège, Mons, Namur, Tournai, Arlon, Eupen — and a request addressed to Brussels for a parish in Limburg goes to the wrong building. The population registers, kept by the commune from 1846, follow a household from address to address and are the other half of the work.
1914–1918 German occupation Rijksarchief / Archives de l'État · Arolsen Archives

The civil registers continue under occupation. The deportation and forced-labour records of these years are a separate series and largely elsewhere.
1918–1940 Kingdom of Belgium Rijksarchief / Archives de l'État · FamilySearch

Eupen-Malmedy passes from Germany to Belgium in 1920, so a family from that ground has German civil registration before it and Belgian after, and the paper did not all follow the border.
1940–1944 German occupation Rijksarchief / Archives de l'État · Arolsen Archives

Arolsen holds the records of those deported from this ground.
1944–2026 Kingdom of Belgium Rijksarchief / Archives de l'État · FamilySearch

Registers pass to the State Archives once they are old enough to be public, so the open end of the series moves forward year by year; check the current threshold with the repository rather than assuming it. Statbel publishes surnames by commune, which this atlas carries and which nothing else here has at that grain.

The rings are approximate — deliberately. They exist to shade which filing system a place fell under, not to adjudicate a border. A place near a ring's edge should be checked against both neighbours.

See the whole span, 1563–2026, on the map →

The map takes a range, and a range that crosses one of the rows above is where records get lost: the family never moved, and the archive on the far side of the handover will tell you it holds nothing.

528 places on this ground

The 200 carrying the most collections are listed; 328 more stand on this ground. Every place has them all.

66 FamilySearch collections reach this ground

Ranked with the regional ones first — a collection for a province is usually a better lead than a national index, though the national index is often where a name is actually written down. A free account opens the images.

…and 6 more.

All record regions · The map