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Genealogy Services

Please contact me if you’re in the need of Genealogy related services (research, preparations, trips, etc).

You may contact me for any country
(such as Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Israel, etc).

Contact me and let’s discuss fees and further details about your request.

Tag: Belgium

  • Unveiling a Second World War Deportation List from Antwerp

    Unveiling a Second World War Deportation List from Antwerp

    A Forgotten List from the War Now Accessible at the Felix Archives

    Sometimes in genealogy, you come across documents that stop you in your tracks. Not just because of their historical importance, but because those documents suddenly connect to real lives, real families. Recently, such a document was added to the Felix Archives in Antwerp: a list of residents who disappeared from the city during World War II. Most of the names are from Jewish families, but it also includes political prisoners and people who were forced to leave their homes.

    Why This Matters for Family History

    Anyone who has ever done family research knows the frustration of missing pieces. You search for a last address, a clue in the population registers, a trace of where someone went—and sometimes the trail just ends. That’s where lists like this can be so powerful. Street by street, it shows who was still in Antwerp and who wasn’t. It’s heartbreaking to read, but at the same time, it gives descendants and researchers something solid to hold on to.

    The 6th District: A Snapshot of a Community

    This particular list comes from Antwerp’s 6th District, an area running from Central Station to the city park and Plantin-Moretuslei. Back then, it was the heart of the city’s Jewish community. Many of the names were people arrested in August and September 1942. For most, their journey ended in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Very few ever returned.

    For those tracing their roots, finding a family name here can be painful, but also illuminating. It might reveal an address you didn’t know, a date you hadn’t found elsewhere, or a detail that suddenly ties your family story together.

    Preserving the Memory

    The original document is now safe at the Felix Archives, where it’s being preserved so future generations can access it. A replica will also be kept at the police heritage centre (erfgoedcentrum van Politie Antwerpen), making sure that this painful chapter of the city’s history remains visible.

    How It Can Help Your Research

    If you’re working on your family tree or trying to piece together the fate of relatives, a document like this can be a key resource. It might help you:

    • Find addresses that show exactly where families lived.
    • Link dates of disappearance with known transport or deportation lists.
    • Compare with other archives—like Kazerne Dossin, Yad Vashem, the Belgian State Archives (Rijksarchief) or local municipal records, to build a fuller picture.

    For me, sources like this remind us that genealogy isn’t only about charts and names. It’s about people, their lives, and their stories—stories that were often cut short but deserve to be remembered and told.

    References:

    https://www.politieantwerpen.be/over-ons/erfgoedcentrum

    https://felixarchief.antwerpen.be

    https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2025/08/26/antwerpen-stadsarchief-deportatielijst-wo-ii

  • Belgian Jewish Life in the different Belgian archives

    The Antwerp City archive is only one of the many archives which has useful files for researchers on Jewish topics

    Just as in other countries, Jews also left traces (and still are leaving traces) in Belgium: The oldest trace is a gravestone in the Flemish city Tienen (French: Tirlemont) of a girl who was known as Rebecca, daughter of Mozes. She passed away in the Jewish year 5016 which corresponds with the Gregorian calendar as 1255-1256.

    Other traces of Jewish life are to be found in:

    • documents: from the Middle Ages through the French Revolution up until now, documents by occupiers of the country (decrees and edicts for the general population or against the Jews specifically), documents by resistance fighters, documents by Governments, documents by the Jewish communities, etc.
    • biographies
    • chronicles like ‘Maagel Tov’ (see http://hebrewbooks.org/21838) by Rabbi Chaim Joseph David Azulai who was also known as the Chida (1724 – 1 March 1806) , whose travels took him also to Belgium
    • gravestones
    • photo’s
    • etc.

    I found it exciting to read about a project by some academics and the Belgian State Archives who have been working for some months on the compilation of a Guide to Archives related to Judaism and the Jewish population in Belgium in the 19th-20th century. The makers of the guide intend to (more…)

  • Liveblog: Mijn ervaringen als bijzitter (verkiezingen 2012)

    Zoals ik al eerder heb geschreven (zie: Twee keer bijzitten (met of zonder koffiekoeken)) moet ik gaan bijzitten in het schoolgebouw van de Lamorniërestraat 93 te Antwerpen. Het is niet mijn bedoeling om hier met analyses en dergelijke te komen over de stemmingen, over de winnaars vs. verliezers, etc. Daar hebben we andere mediakanalen voor. Wel is het de bedoeling dat ik hier ga schrijven hoe ik het bijzitten ervaar als iemand die opgeroepen werd te om (verplicht) te gaan bijzitten.

    Het is de bedoeling dat ik hier in realtime ga bloggen, een soort van “liveblog” dus.
    (refresh deze pagina voor de laatste updates):

    7:05 net de deur uit

    7:23 Ik zit inmiddels in stemlokaal 39,de “opstartfolder” is zoek.

    7:31 De “opstartfolder” is gevonden.

    7:45 Een bijzitter voor stemhok 40(is in hetzelfde lokaal als stemhok 39 kwam te laat en mag als beloning naar huis. Hij erg blij natuurlijk aangezien hij als zelfstandige nu gewoon kan gaan werken, nu nog stemmen en dan gaat hij naar huis.

    8:04 Net horen vertellen dat indien het de vorige keer bij het bijzitten “goed” heeft gewerkt, men opnieuw kan worden opgeroepen, van de andere kant kan men bij het veroorzaken van problemen worden beboet. Wat als iedereen moeilijk doet en niemand het meldt?

    8:13 GJ laat me per e-mail weten dat men bezig is een regeling te treffen dat men slechts twee keer kan worden opgeroepen als bijzitter.

    8:18 De stembussen zijn nog niet open. Een stemmer moet vertrekken en vraagt een bewijs dat de stembussen te laat open zijn gegaan. Hij krijgt hier dat bewijs blijkbaar niet.

    8:25Ik mocht het systeem net testen.

    8:26 De rijen worden langer, nog steeds dicht. Enkele gefrustreerde mensen maar (nog steeds) geen kabaal.

    8:29 Eed is afgelegd. Stembus gaat open.

    8:35 De stembus is geopend.

    8:52 de oudere mensen hebben het moeilijk met het nieuwe systeem welke totaal nieuw is.

    8:53…

    9:15 Ik heb iets verkeerds gedaan, er staat namelijk “keer terug naar het vorige scherm “. Tja, dan moet je uitleggen dat dat een balk is waar je op Mag drukken met je vingers als je terug wilt naar het vorige scherm.

    11:18 Toby Fischler komt net binnen, stemt hij op zich zelf?

    12:48 Het valt me op dat de gepensioneerde mensen over het algemeen vroeg ‘s morgens zijn gekomen terwijl de jongere kiezers later komen.

    13:32 Hmhm, nog steeds een lange rij. Om 15 uur gaan de deuren dicht.

    13:48 Van tijd tot tijd gaat het alarm af. Een hoog geluid en best wel storend. Dat kan gebeuren als de printer hapert, als iemand de kaart er opnieuw insteekt, als het te lang duurt, etc.
    Dan moet een bijzitter of de IT-man, die er de hele dag is om ondersteuning te verlenen voor zover dit nodig blijkt, de stemcomputer deblokkeren dmv een pincode of, in het geval van printerproblemen, moet de IT-man de printer nakijken. De kiezer moet bij printerproblemen de hele procedure dan wel helemaal opnieuw doorlopen. Lang leve de techniek.

    14:20 GJ schrijft mij dat men in Vlaanderen 25 Euro verdient als bijzitter terwijl een Waal 50 pleuries krijgt en een Brusselaar 150! Misschien dan toch een verhuis naar Brussel regelen? Al is het maar voor één dag?

    14:50 Mijn vrouw en kinderen zijn even langs gekomen met eten.

    14:59 De eerste twee bijzitters willen weg,het is immers 15 uur. Discussie laait op. Ze zullen nog even ambtenaar moeten spelen. Hoe loopt dit af?

    15:15 Bijna klaar, beetje over tijd, dat wel maar tja…
    Mijn kinderen spelen buiten op de speelplaats van de school.

    15:23Yes!! Klaar!! Nu mogen de bijzitters stemmen en dan is het echt klaar!
    Eén van de twee bijzitters die weg wouden is vertrokken zonder te stemmen, de bijzitters kunnen immers pas na iedereen stemmen. Dit is hoe de pc zouden zijn ingesteld. De andere bijzitter is gebleven. Krijgt degene die is weggelopen de 25 Euro wel?! En een boete?
    Persoonlijk heb ik begrip voor haar. Ze moet haar agenda overhoop halen en verder heeft ze een babysitter die wachtp, en dat kost ook geld!

    15:37 Ik heb gestemd, nu mag alles worden afgebroken.
    De weggelopen bijzitter bleek uiteindelijk nog steeds binnen te zijn. Misschien dat de politie-agent die wachter van dienst was, haar niet buiten liet zonder te stemmen?

    15:45 Ik ben net vetrokken en 25 Euro rijker (als ze die gaan overmaken op mijn rekening).

    15:50 Mijn dochter van vijf vraagt wie de burgemeester is geworden.

    15:53 Ziezo, ik ben thuis. Ik heb mijn tas met leesgerief al weggedaan. Ik ging er namelijk van uit dat ik zat tijd zou hebben om te lezen. In 2009 toen ik moest bijzitten voor het referendum had ik inderdaad meer tijd om te lezen. Maar toen was het niet verplicht om je stem uit te brengen, nu wel. Nu ik het toch heb over verplicht stemmen vs vrijwillig stemmen; ik zag nogal veel mensen die moeilijk ter been waren en ook in de lange rijen moesten wachten, ook waren er genoeg mensen die at random hun keuze maakten op eender welke partij. Ze wisten immers niet op wie ze wel of niet moesten stemmen. Ze deden het enkel omdat stemmen verplicht is in Belgie. Ik vraag me af of men dus niet beter het stemplicht kan stoppen en enkel de mensen die willen stemmen,laten stemmen? Wel of niet stemmen is toch ook een democratische keuze die men zelf moet weten te maken?!

  • How to subscribe to the online services of the Antwerp Archives

    Please note that I am not affiliated with the Antwerp Archives although I strongly support them. Therefore, don’t contact the archives for any question which relates specifically to my website. Only contact them for matters which are related to them and their services.

    For some services on the website of the Antwerp Archives (the “Felix Archief”), you first need to sign up (for free) which can be done online. I suggest that you start working on the website without signing up. On accessing most of the objects, you’ll be required to sign in as a user. If you don’t have yet a login and password, then this is the moment to sign up. You can do this on the logon screen which will be presented to you when you try to access a page which is only accessible to registered users. Click then on the word ‘hier’ in the sentence:

    “Heeft u nog geen bezoekersnaam of wachtwoord? Klik dan hier“

    (translation” If you don’t have yet a login and password, click here):

    In the next screen you can (more…)

  • An introduction to the alien/immigrants files at the FelixArchief (Antwerp Archives)

    Microfilms at the FelixArchief

    Many of the Jews citizens living in Antwerp around the turn of the 20th century were immigrants. In addition, while it is impossible to arrive at precise statistics, of the 65-75,000 Jews living in Belgium on the eve of World War II, at least 85 percent had arrived in the country after 1918. It is for that reason that I want to focus in this article on the alien files which probably are the most interesting for people who have had Jewish relatives in Antwerp. I hope to write in the future about other collections held by the Antwerp Archives.

    How and by whom were the files assembled?
    All new immigrants (except for the immigrants who are in certain privileged categories) who wanted to stay in Belgium, did have to contact the municipality of the place where they resided in.

    The city council was in charge of some tasks imposed on them by the Belgian government such as:

  • A history of the Antwerp Archives (FelixArchief) and getting there

    History of the archives:
    The archives of the city of Antwerp started with two charters from 1221 which the city kept in a huge chest which was longer then two meters and which was called the ‘privilegiekom’.

    Of each lock the key was kept by another councilmember of the city. Therefore only when all councilmembers were together, the chest could be opened (the chest is currently on view in the reading room of the Antwerp archives).

    Me standing in front of that chest (I am holding an archival item which is not related to the chest)

    Thanks to the growth of the city, and of the growing stack of documents, the chest did not meet anymore the expectations of the city. Another reason why the chest did not fulfill the requirements anymore at that time, is that until the French Revolution all departments of the city archived their own files, which means that there was no (centralized) ‘city archive’ like we know today in Antwerp.

    In 1796 a city archivist was appointed who was in charge of storing and managing the archives. Until the first half of the 20th century the archives were kept in the town hall (the beautiful town hall was built in Renaissance style between 1561 and 1565). Since then the archives moved a few times. During the Second World War the most important pieces of the archives were kept near a moated castle near Rochefort (in the south of Belgium). After the war the archives moved to the Venusstraat in a building which purpose was not meant (yet) for archives, therefore part of the archives were temporarily moved to a building in the Meirbrug. On 15 December 1956 the building in the Venusstraat was refurbished and the archives were kept there for almost 50 years. It closed it doors to the public on May 1st, 2006.

    In November 2006 the city archives (more…)

  • Preparing your research at the Belgian State Archives

    Because archives are not always only one block away from you, or because their opening times don’t suit you always well, you most probably will need to do as much preparatory and research work as possible before and after your visit. In order to know how to plan your visit to the archives the best way possible, it is of utmost importance to know what you should and what you should not expect at the archives.

    It is for that reason that I’ll try to share in this article some of my personal tips for doing research in the Belgian state archives while focusing on the alien files (click here for an overview of other articles with tips ont doing research at the Belgian archives on this website).

    I’ve explained a bit about the numbers which were assigned to each newly opened file (see: “An introduction to the Belgian Statearchives and its immigration files”). When you are looking for a specific relative, you obviously need to get the number of that immigrant’s file. Now, the reading room at the state archives have three sets of indices to the files at your disposal. These indices are copies of the originals. The originals can obviously not be borrowed out to the visitors, what you’ll get instead are the copies in various formats. The format of each copy depends on the index you’ll need, see later).

    The originals of the indices are papers in an A3 format with small cards pasted on it. Each card has on it the number of the person’s file and very basic information of the persons such as the first and last names. Additionally to that information, you may find sometimes the date of birth, the place where s/he was born, the occupation of that person, the partner, etc.

    An example of how the top row (with tree cards) of one copied A3 page from the index looks like on the microfilms (it did not come out clearly with my digital camera therefore I had to note it down on a piece of paper). Note the details in this index. On the top we see the starting letters for this page (TIMBER).You see for some people the details of the partner (the name, the file number, etc). For most of the people you see also the DOB and the place where they were born. The file number is obviously still the most important piece of information on these cards.Â

    This all means that (more…)

  • The State Archives in Belgium: Getting there

    (See also the links at the end of this article)

    How to get there:
    The State Archives of Belgium are on the following address:

    rue de Ruysbroeck 2
    1000 Brussels
    phone: +32 2 513 76 80

    [cetsEmbedGmap src=http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Rue+de+Ruysbroeck+2,+1000+Bruxelles,+Belgi%C3%AB&hl=nl&ie=UTF8&ll=50.842262,4.356058&spn=0.006436,0.014999&z=16&vpsrc=0 width=400 height=425 marginwidth=0 marginheight=0 frameborder=0 scrolling=no]

    It is easy to get there by taxi or public transportation. The national airport of Belgium, which is situated in Zaventem near Brussels, is about 14.4 km (8.95 miles) away and it takes about 16 minutes to drive by car (without traffic).

    The museum district “Kunstberg – Mont des Arts”:
    The archives are near the Kunstberg which in French is called Mont des Arts (hill of Arts).

    That area in fact serves as the Museum District of Brussels which was conceived by King Léopold II. King Léopold II decided to turn the whole district into what today is known as the Mont des Arts. The King dreamed of making Brussels a modern and cultural capital city and Mont des Arts the treasure of his country and witness to the history of Belgium.

    A plate memorializing Belgian kings Leopold II for conceiving the Mont des Arts, king Leopold III for implementing it and king Baudouin/Boudewijn I for establishing it. The Mont des Arts was dedicated to the memory of king Albert I

    The Mont des Arts is situated in about the same area which was known as the “Jewish (more…)

  • An introduction to the Belgian Statearchives and its immigration files

    The Public Safety Organization:
    In 1840 the Belgian state, which was founded in 1830, entrusted the Public Safety (in Dutch: Openbare Veiligheid, in French: Sûreté Publique, in German:Öffentlichen Sicherheit) which was an autonomous board under the Minister of Justice, to monitor the aliens on its territory.

    Note: Both Dutch, French and German are spoken in specific parts of Belgium as can be seen on the following map:

    In order to preserve public order, the Public Safety Organization had to remove undesired aliens from Belgium’s territory. In order to be able to implement this order, they had to rely on the support from the municipal authorities who had in their turn to report each registration of any alien in the register of the municipality as soon as possible to the Public Safety.

    This Public Safety organization would then decide whether the person could remain in the country. If this was the case, the Public Safety organization would keep a close eye on the alien citizen during his or her stay in Belgium. All authorities, including the army and the judiciary, were supposed to forward any document about the foreigner to the Public Safety Organization.

    How was the information collected:
    Most information was obviously gathered from aliens who voluntarily went to the municipalities to register. In addition, information was directly obtained by the police who found foreigners on Belgian territory and of foreigners that had to resort to the use of public services such as hospitals, etc.

    Some files were opened on aliens even though they never reached Belgian territory. The organization opened these files preventively for “subversive” and possible criminal foreigners in order to be prepared in case they would enter Belgian territory.

    When the foreigner in question passed away or (more…)

  • Continue wegenwerken in district Antwerpen (leuk maar storend)

    Bron: Wikimedia (Ziyalistix)

    Ik heb onlangs een mail gestuurd naar de stad van Antwerpen om mijn beklag te doen omtrent de werken die simultaan op verschillende plaatsen worden uitgevoerd en omtrent de vrij slechte bewewijzering.
    Hieronder mijn e-mail van 19 mei 2011 en daaropvolgend twee antwoorden. Het eerste antwoord van 5 juli 2011 is van de Stad en het tweede antwoord van 8 juli 2011 is van de verkeerspolitie (via de Stad) (ik ben benieuwd naar jullie reacties):

    Geachte,
    Het is me opgevallen dat er nogal veel wordt gebouwd in Antwerpen.
    Dit is natuurlijk een voordeel dat de stad mooi blijft ogen, en dat het een trots zal blijven van de Antwerpenaren.
    Ik vraag me enkel af waarom men tegelijkertijd op verschillende plaatsen is gaan bouwen.
    Als men bijvoorbeeld van Antwerpen-Zuid naar Antwerpen-Noord probeert te gaan, kan men nog steeds terugvallen op de Leien. Het probleem is nu dat er belangrijke verkeersassen zijn die leiden naar de Breestraat, Rubenslei, etc en dat er ginder nu constipatie heerst door dat men enkel en alleen via de Leien naar zijstraten komt. Dit is bijvoorbeeld het geval indien men (more…)