Municipal Archives

The online image database allows you to search photos of Kerkrade. The images are not downloadable. For a copy of a photo, please contact the archive.

Online image database

To the use of photos from our image bank and archival materials are Requirements attached. 

The Municipal Archives has a collection of approximately 3,000 books and periodicals on the history of Kerkrade and the surrounding area. All publications can be viewed in the reading room. You cannot borrow the books and periodicals. 

The collection is still being added to regularly. The reading room staff will be happy to inform you of the latest acquisitions. 

Find a title in the archive library

Family cards from 1917 to 1940 have been removed from the reading room. This is because they contain information about a person's religion. These are special personal data. Strict privacy rules apply to them.

Until now, anyone could just view the Maps . But the Personal Data Authority says it may still contain information from people who are still alive. That information should not be given out just like that.

The Municipal Archives cannot properly verify which Maps have such data on them. Therefore, we no longer show the Maps . 

The first street names originated in the vernacular long ago to indicate approximately where someone lived. Often it was enough to refer to a distinctive feature of the neighborhood to make it clear where someone came from. For example, the name "New Street" originated as an indication of a new group of houses near the hamlet of "Strass. It was not until the rise of coal mining in the early twentieth century that Kerkrade grew significantly. The number of inhabitants and homes increased dramatically during this time, and in order to keep administrative order, it was necessary for street names to be officially established. On December 12, 1919, the first list of then 76 street names was established by the municipal council.

Over the years, the municipality of Kerkrade's street name database has grown larger and larger. The last major change dates from 1982 when the independent municipalities of Eygelshoven and Kerkrade were merged into the new municipality of Kerkrade.

Street names Kerkrade municipal archive

The municipality of Kerkrade shares information from the municipal archives. This is data from old deeds, family trees and obituaries, for example. This information comes from Kerkrade and the former municipality of Eygelshoven.

We call this information open data. That means anyone can view and use the data for free, with as few rules as possible. The law "Reuse of Government Information" says this is allowed.

In government, this involves information that:

• is public for everyone
• paid for with government money
• is made in performing tasks for the government
• does not have the rights of others, such as copyright

These data are preferably in a format that computers can read easily. They also follow established conventions (open standards) so they can be easily reused.

What may you do with this data?

The municipality uses the CC BY-SA 4.0 license . Please adhere to the following rules when using the data: 

• Name the creator of the data if you use it.
• Please indicate if you have changed anything.
• If you create something new with the data, you must also share it under this license.

What data is available now?

You will find, among other things:

• Data from the civil records of Kerkrade and Eygelshoven
• oratory
• various collections of the municipal archives

The municipality adds more data in the future. Sometimes errors are also corrected or new information is added.

Where can you find the open data?

You can download the files from the open data download page. The files are in XML format.

Download data sets municipality of Kerkrade

Learn more

• Creative Commons Netherlands
• Dutch government data portal
• Archive 2.0
• Government Information Reuse Act

My Study Room is a collaborative project between DE REE Archive Systems and organizations participating in archieven.nl

Kerkrade Municipal Archives makes its inventories and collections available through that website. With an account on My Study Room, you can view and download scans of records, for a fee or not. It is also possible to purchase other products, such as books, photographs, and so on, from a number of participating organizations.

More functionality will be developed in the future that you can use with your account, such as preference settings.
Creating an account is free of charge. With this account you can access both archieven.nl and the websites of the participating archives services. Products and downloads are sometimes free and sometimes only available for a fee.

My Reading Room

• For conducting research by a staff member of the archive, regardless of the result: €17.70 per quarter of an hour or part thereof
• To legalize a copy or transcript by signature and/or stamp: € 2.90 per piece
• For a photocopy of an archive document: €0.30 each
• For sending a scanned archive document by e-mail: € 2.40 per scan