The exit strategy of the State Archives
- Under reserve of further guidelines by the National Security Council, the State Archives re-opens its reading rooms in two phases:
- As from 26 May 2020, students and Ph.D. students whose academic activities require the use of archives are granted access to the reading rooms of the State Archives upon appointment and under the condition that they wear a face mask. Reservation of workspace in the reading room must be made by e-mail to the State Archives in question at least 2 workdays before the visit. You can find the contact details of our services on our website. Students must produce a valid student ID and Ph.D. students must show proof of their doctoral studies at a scientific research fund, a university or a scientific institution.
- Provided that the public health situation in the country allows it, all reading rooms of the State Archives will re-open as from Tuesday 16 June 2020 for the general public.
- The State Archives shall of course take all necessary precautions to ensure the security of both visitors and staff. The number of available workspaces in the reading rooms depends on the individual configuration of the premises and shall be limited accordingly.
- In the meantime, we continue to provide minimum service to the maximum extent and to increase our online offer of archives and finding aids.
- In order to somewhat alleviate the effects of the long closure of our reading rooms, all scheduled repository inventorying activities for 2020 are cancelled.
- All public events, such as colloquia, group visits, receptions, book presentations, training, etc. organised by the State Archives until 15 June 2020 included are cancelled.
- Transports and deliveries will progressively resume on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, provided that security distances can be respected.
You can stay informed about further developments via this website and via Facebook.
ArchPoll Results!
No less than 2,888 people cast their vote the past few days: a number that far exceeded our expectations! We would like to thank all voters for their participation. It turned out to be an experiment that clearly tastes like more. And we take your preference into account! The top 10, that emerged from ArchPoll, are already online:
- Vrijgeleiden uit Wereldoorlog I (No. 414-607)
- Brabantse volkstellingen (17de-18de eeuw) (No. 314-405)
- Vonnisboeken van de Raad van Vlaanderen (14de-18de eeuw) (No. 164-170, 2327-2605 en 8557-8596)
- Vonnisboeken van de Grote Raad van Mechelen (1475-1794) (No. 977-1045)
- Archief van de Raad van Beroerten (1567-1576) (No. 1-400)
- Penningkohieren in het archief van de Audiëntie (1569-1574) (No. 618/1-39)
- Kortrijkse poortersboeken (1413-1796) (No. 1-5)
- Archief van de oude universiteit Leuven (15de-18de eeuw) (No. 3, 22-29, 51-88, 99, 273-286, 288, 298-306, 387-391, 502-511, 689, 710-725, 812-815, 4751-4755)
- Kortrijkse wezerijregisters (1403-1796) (No. 1-179)
- Repertoria van notarisarchieven uit Bergen (19de-20ste eeuw) (No. 1-57)
Click here for an overview of the digitized archives. Attention! Not all files can be consulted from home.
UPDATE January 2020: Belgian civil status registers and church registers online!
Over 36.4 million pages of genealogical sources (civil status registers and church registers) are now available on the website of the State Archives.
Millions of archive documents become available for free at home. 28,242 church registers (including tables) conserved at the different State Archives repositories and their additions by other archives institutions become available online.
The digitisation of the civil status registers has not yet been completed. The digital images will progressively be added to our website. Whenever ten-year tables are available they are also scanned.
The digitised documents can be viewed for free, but you need to register and get your login and password via our website.
Overview of civil status registers
Overview of church registers
Collection of cadastre maps and documents online!
From now on, the search engine ‘Search archives’ also allows you to find some 23,423 digital images of ‘primitive cadastral maps’ and some 61,530 digital images of the ‘minutes of measurement’ setting the municipal boundaries. These scans originate from the Federal Public Service Finance and can be accessed via the following links:
Primitive cadastral maps
Minutes of measurement
Consultation is free but if you wish to access the actual images, you need to have a login and password, which you can obtain on the website.
Click here to watch the clip
Search engine instruction clip online!
The State Archives conserves over 315 kilometers of archives. Each year, at least 10 km are added after appraisal. So, how do you search this vast treasure of information? Use the search engine. Ths instruction clip shows you, after a brief presentation of the State Archives, practical hints about how to get the most out of our powerful search engines.
Click here to watch the instruction clip via YouTube