Public archives of the Ancien Régime

The State Archives in Anderlecht preserve the records of the former central institutions of the Duchy of Brabant that existed during the Ancien Régime (Chancellery of Brabant, States of Brabant, Council of Brabant, Feudal Court of Brabant, etc.) and the records of the central government institutions with regional competences: the Commission for the provincial revenues of Brabant or the Junta for epizootics in Brabant and Limbourg, holding its sittings in Brussels. The fonds of particular regional and local public institutions also enrich this archives repository (archives of the Judicature of the Brussels department customs, and of the Tonlieux Chamber of Brussels; archives of crafts and corporations), as do the archives of the local judiciary and administrative institutions of the former Ancien Régime (aldermen, etc.). The latter were formerly being preserved at the National Archives in collections compiled and classified by judicial districts. With the splitting of the former province of Brabant, these collections have been distributed among the respective State Archives repositories of the newly created provinces. The collection of the “Aldermanic registry of the district Brussels” was brought to the Anderlecht repository and a new search instrument for it saw the light of day: OST W., VANRIE A., Inventaire des archives des greffes scabinaux de la région de Bruxelles : (AA, Anderlecht, Auderghem, Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, Boendaal, Boitsfort, Bruxelles, Carloo, Etterbeek, Evere, Forest, Ganshoren, Haren, Homborch, Ixelles, Jette-Saint-Pierre, Koekelberg, Laeken, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, Nederheembeek, Overheembeek, Saint-Gilles, Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Schaerbeek, Stalle, Uccle, Walcourt, Watermael-Boitsfort, Woluwe-Saint-Pierre), (State Archives in Anderlecht, limited edition search instruments, 24, Brussels, re-edited 2001). A guide to these local public institutions with a historical description and a bibliography is also available: VANRIE A., Guide des fonds et des collections des Archives générales du Royaume. Archives scabinales et communales du Brabant, (National Archives, Guides, 16, Brussels, 1995). Furthermore, the overview authored by Nijssen provides information about all these fonds of the Ancien Régime: NIJSSEN R., Aperçu des archives et collections conservées aux Archives générales du Royaume. Producteurs d'archives issus de la région bruxelloise, du gouvernement central, des administrations provinciales et locales. I. Institutions publiques jusqu'en 1795, (National Archives, Guides, 36, Brussels, 1998). Finally, the state of accessibility for research written in 1997 provides a panorama of the degree in which the different fonds are accessible: Etat de l'ouverture à la recherche I: Département II, (Miscellanea Archivistica, Studia, 93, Brussels, 1997). Using the corresponding lead can facilitate research in the judicial archives of the Ancien Régime: PUT E., Archives judiciaires sous l'Ancien Régime, (National Archives, Leads, 9, Brussels, 1999).

---

Public contemporary archives

The State Archives in Anderlecht hold the archives of the institutions of the district of Brabant (district administration of Brabant under French occupation), of the Dyle department (administration of the Dyle department and the Dyle prefecture) and of the province of Brabant until it was split (provincial government of Brabant, provincial commission for scholarships, etc.). A series of inventories regarding these fonds are available and a state of accessibility for research written in 1999 gives an overview of their accessibility: Staat van de ontsluiting VI - Departement I : Provinciebestuur Brabant en zijn rechtsvoorgangers, (National Archives, Miscellanea Archivistica, Studia, 117, Brussels, 1999). The archives of the external services of the ministries, such as the offices for land survey, registry, properties and mortgage registry of the Ministry of Finance and the archives of the prisons (as an external service of the Ministry of Justice) have also been transferred to the new regional repository. Under the laws on archives from June 24th, 1955 and December 12th, 1957, the public administrations such as public institutions and communes can hand over their archives to the State Archives but are not legally obliged to do so. A list of the communal archives of Brabant allows an identification of those communes that made use of this possibility and transferred their records to the State Archives in Anderlecht. The list comprises information about the fonds handed over before the merging of the communes and about the archives that remained with the communes. VANRIE A., Guide des fonds et des collections des Archives générales du Royaume. Archives scabinales et communales du Brabant, (National Archives, Guides, 16, Brussels, 1995). However, this guide needs to be updated, given new inventories have been written since 1995. The tasks assigned to the State Archive repository in Anderlecht also comprise the inspection of the archives of the communes and social welfare centres (CPAS/OCMW): LAURENT R., Inspection des archives des communes et des CPAS de l'Agglomération bruxelloise, (National Archives, Miscellanea archivistica, Studia, 21, Brussels, 1992).
A significant portion of the archives preserved at this repository originate from the courts and tribunals located in Brussels: archives of the criminal tribunals of the Dyle department, archives of the Assise Court of Brabant, archives of the Court of First Instance of Brussels, archives of the Court of Appeal of Brussels, archives of the military court, archives of the Justice of Peace (Justice de Paix) and the archives of the Criminal Investigation Department. A series of search instruments provide information about these fonds. Beside the inventories, a lead enables searchers to familiarise with the different types of documents produced by the judicial authority and gives methodological aids to researchers: DEPOORTERE R., Archives judiciaires de la période contemporaine (National Archives, Leads, 11, Brussels, 2000). Information about the degree of accessibility fo these archives can be found in the state of accessibility for research V: Département III - 1. Archives judiciaires, (National Archives, Miscellanea archivistica, Studia, 112, Brussels, 1999).

---

Ecclesiastical institutions of the Ancien Régime and the contemporary period

While the archives of private individuals and enterprises can be accessed at the National Archives, an archive fonds of considerable size and private origin that has become public in the course of the nationalisation of clergy goods during the French revolution is stored at the State Archives repository in Anderlecht. This voluminous fonds of the ecclesiastical archives of Brabant comprising the archives of convents and abbeys, of churches and chapters as well as of other local ecclesiastical institutions (Poor’s Table, etc.), was distributed among the three repositories that saw the light of day through the splitting of the former province of Brabant. This collection has grown to a size of more than one thousand linear metres in the course of the successive appropriations and acquisitions of ecclesiastical archive material. A guide is available for this fonds offering a short history of each institution, a related bibliography and information about the archives of these individual institutions: MURET Ph., Guide des fonds et collections des Archives générales du Royaume. Archives ecclésiastiques du Brabant. Volume I : Doyennés, paroisses, collégiales, 2 vol., (AGR, Guides, 17, Bruxelles, 1994). Volume II. Abbayes, prieurés, chartreuses, (National Archives, Guides, 39, Brussels, 1998). The guide also refers to related existing inventories.

---

The profession of notary public in the past and today

From 1963 onwards, legal provisions had been foreseen that enabled the deposit of repertories and minutes from notaries public at the State Archives. On April 28th, 1999, a new law on the profession of notary public authorised the deposit of notarial documents older than fifty years and made mandatory the deposit of repertories, tables and minutes older than seventy-five years. Under these provisions, a large number of minutes from notaries public with residence on the territory of the Brussels-Capital region were deposited. The documents complemented the archives of the General Notary’s Office of Brabant, created in 1680 and abolished in 1795, whose transfer to the National Archives was later realised under the order of a Royal Decree of 1858. Furthermore, the archives of the notaries public of the province of Brabant who were in charge after 1795 had been progressively deposited at the National Archives, mainly from 1905 onwards, and made up the collection of the notarial archives of the province of Brabant. New search instruments made it possible to draw up alphabetical lists of the notaries public according to the new administrative sub-divisions of the former province. The records of the jurisdiction of Brussels were of course deposited at the regional repository and a new inventory was authored: LAURENT R., VANRIE A., Archives notariales de la région Bruxelloise, (State Archives in Anderlecht, limited edition search instruments, 30, Brussels, reed. 2001). This inventory comprises a chronological list of the notaries public practicing in the communes of the Brussels region. As a complement to the aforementioned, the following publication can serve as a guide for research in archives still kept at notarial offices: GYSELINCK J.-M., LAURENT R., Le notariat dans l’arrondissement de Bruxelles. Répertoire des minutes (depuis le XVIème), 2 volumes, (National Archives, Inventories, 174, Brussels, 1971).

---

Genealogical research

The State Archives in Anderlecht possess microfilm collections of the parish registers prior to 1795, the civil status registers (from 1796 to 1910) of the Brussels communes, the provinces Walloon-Brabant, Hainaut, Namur and Liège, and the population registers of some communes of the former province of Brabant. Consultation of the parish registers is facilitated by appendant repertories, just as the civil status registers can easily be searched by means of relevant ten years tables. These repertories and tables are also available on microfilm. In order to find a microfilm, one can be refer to the Family History Library Belgium Locality Catalogue by the Genealogical Society of Utah that has carried out the microfilming of the genealogical sources. The catalogue is revised and updated annually. In order to find a record of the parish registers, it is best to first search the repertories based on these registers. These are alphabetical lists referring for each name to the date and year of a record and to the record number or register page number. The repertories can be consulted on microfilms whose numbers can be found in the Family History Library Belgium Locality. A concordance table between the numbering of the Family History Library Belgium Locality and the one used by the State Archives until 1967 has to be consulted in order to find out the actual number under which the desired microfilm has eventually been filed. Moreover, these repertories are for sale as copies at the National Archives located rue de Ruysbroeck in Brussels, or via the website of the State Archives. The search procedure in the civil status registers is largely similar. These registers are accessible via the ten years tables on microfilm. The microfilms are free of use and distributed per province.