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The sources
When one begins to show
interest in one's ancestors, the first sources that
are
available are, of course, the information collected by one's
parents. Then come the documents kept in the family, which
often only by chance have been rescued from destruction :
marriage certificates, photos, military service call up
papers, correspondence etc.
This allows us, without much effort, to find the trace of
our
grandparents. Then, we must get out of the family circle
and try to rebuild family links on the basis of official
records which have hopefully been saved in the archives.
For the nineteenth century,
the state archives remain the most important source of
information: they contain the birth certificates (with the
names and age of the parents), the marriage certificates
(with mention of the husband's or wife's
names, and the
names of their parents) and the death certificates.
If one wishes to go further back, one has to refer to church
registers which appeared about 1600. In the beginning,
they give little information : for baptism certificates
only the name of the child and the father, without even
mentioning the mother's name, for death certificates
sometimes only the name of the deceased person, without
any more information. One must have a lot of patience, and a
lot of luck to be able to trace one's ancestors.
The Delperdanges, fortunately, lived during many centuries
grouped in Bastogne. Thus the greater part of the
information necessary to build the family tree between 1650
and 1850 can be found in the church records and the state
registers in the archives of the city of Bastogne.
They are
available as follows :
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Church records :
- Baptism from 1613 until 1824
- Marriage certificates from 1721 until 1824
- Death certificates from 1721 until 1824
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State records :
- Births from 1797 until 1880
- Marriages from 1797 until 1880
- Death certificates from 1797
until 1880 |
These
documents can be consulted on microfilm (State records and
church records) or on photocopy (church records) in the
State archives at St Hubert and at Arlon.
After
1880, the official acts are not kept anymore in the State
archives but in the local Authority (Commune) archives.
Generally speaking, they can be consulted for Genealogical
Research with authorisation from the local authorities.
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