Nationaal Archief at the Hague online, by Cornel Viljoen

During 2020 the Nationaal Archief (National Archives) in The Hague, Netherlands, started making their documents for the period 1652 to 1794, available for online research. (https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/).  I was initially introduced to this new treasure trove of data by Corney Keller, an expert in old Dutch records and transcriber of many of the very old Dutch documents, vrijluiden (free settler) registers and many more on the eGGSA SARecords web site.

To navigate the new Archive Search facility does take some time to get used to but, with Corney’s help, I was able to navigate and trace some amazing documents and plenty of new and additional information that is now available electronically. The information is organised into various sections, and the most relevant section for South African documents can be found in the inventory of series 1.04.02, Inventaris van het archief van de Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC), 1602-1795. (This article originally published more fully in eGGSA's quarterly magazine genesis, March 2021)

Cornel has generously allowed eGGSA to add to the eGGSA web site his list of Muster Rolls which includes those he has located on the Nationaal Archief site - eGGSA Muster Roll Listing,