Introduction to the Belgian Censuses of Provinces of Hainaut and Namur
The published online Belgian Censuses of what is now known as Provinces Hainaut and Namur are called “Registres de Population” and the images are located at FamilySearch.org Unfortunately, not every town in these provinces has census records, but most do. FamilySearch offers so much over-whelming but difficult to navigate information that is available from one town to another. Searching is time-consuming to go through each town to find these censuses records. Then to navigate though them. I’ve tried to make it easier for you, I’ve created an alphabetical page of each town with censuses of the years that are available
In addition, to cut out the navigation fuss, I’ve created an easy visual tutorial on how to navigate through the Belgian censuses to further help you out.
Most towns recorded, of the Provinces of Hainaut and Namur, are of the 1840s to 1900, but there are some towns that offer 1700s censuses . You might find additional records such as property owners information and more listed with the towns.
Information you could find in these records:
- Names: Surname and First name
- town where they came from
- Town where they live at presently
- town where they went to/date of departure
- town of birth
- date of birth or age
- profession
- marital status
- date of death
You might notice there are dates of death for some of the individuals counted. It is strange to read the later dates of death added to the population registres, while the person is still alive at the time of counting. But apparently, that was a normal procedure. The information was later recorded and forwarded to the census takers of the original town to be added.
I hope this gives you a clearer picture of the population registres (otherwise known as census records), to help you in your research in finding your ancestors. Now onward to the alphabetical listing of the towns of Hainaut. Stop by my navigation tutorial for help finding your way.