court records Wissenkerke
I have been going through the court records of Wissenkerke (Zeeland, NL) on your website [FamilySearch Catalog: Rechterlijke registers, 1653-1811] and for some mysterious reason it would seem only half the files have been unlocked. Therefore I assume there no possibly issue with publication rights.
For example the boederekeningen 1677-1732 and 1746-1778 are accessible, but the ones for 1723-1745 and 1779-1811 are blocked. That's quite random...I already spoke to representatives of the Zeeuws Archief in MIddelburg, who supported the creation of the microfilms at the time and they're unaware of any constraints in releasing the files as they're considered public records.Can you support unlocking all the files within this archive?
Answers
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@SerraNola
Could you please check the classification of this record set? I agree with the OP that it's odd that some records from the 18th century are not available.
Thanks.
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@JPBusman While it may seem excessive, the contents of wills are strictly private in the Netherlands and remain confidential even after death, accessible only to authorized heirs. I was informed that, based on legal review and guidance for the Netherlands, inheritance-related records, including wills, are subject to an indefinite restriction. In other words, regardless of whether the records are fifty or three hundred years old, if the description includes "will" or "estate," they will be restricted. All eight films in this collection with no access are classified this way.
(Interestingly, some unrestricted items also fall into this category; if I request further review, it's likely that more will become inaccessible.)
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@SerraNola Interesting point of view as I can actually acces old dutch wills and there content through dutch websites (as far as they are indexed). So this explanation is not quite satisfictory and the american Interpretation of the dutch guidelines and laws seems not to be completely correct.
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@Lars van Ravenzwaaij It's more likely not the American interpretation, but FamilySearch interpretation. The explanation came from FamilySearch Legal and whether I agree or not, I can only relay their decisions.
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@SerraNola that legal position is regrettably incorrect. All documents that are handed over to archival institutions are subject to the Dutch "Archiefwet", which stipulates when documents become public. That period for most documents is 75 years, for some documents like birth records 100 years. But there is most certainly no indefinite restriction on access to wills and testaments. I have no idea where anyone would have gotten that idea. And if you where to visit any of the website of the Dutch archival institutions you would in aquick glance be convinced that no institution applies the FamilySearch interpretation.
The only exemption is for those testament that are explicitly classified as "verzegelde testamenten", i.e. sealed testaments which can only be accessed in the physical presence of an archivist. Those are archived separately from the ordinary testaments.This incorrect interpretation now used by FamilySearch is disastrous for access to wills and testaments, which had been long available on FamilSearch. So how can we overturn this?
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@SerraNola the question remains unanswered how we can address this problem with FamilySearch Legal. What's the path to contact them?
I haven't seen any efforts from the moderators on this forum to do so.0 -
@JPBusman I'm struggling with making any progress. If you can prepare a more formal letter covering your earlier points, I'll get it to Contract and Compliance. You don’t need to use your full name.
I was able to open up this film by having the record type changed from Wills to Court Records, but that won't work in every case.
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Dear @SerraNola
please find attached my letter to the Contract and Compliance team, in which outlined that "indefinite restriction" cannot legally be applied to Dutch archived documents.
with kindest regards,
(Name removed)
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Mod note: Community is a public online forum. For your privacy, your post was edited to remove a name that is not part of your username. Please see the Community Code of Conduct for more details.
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@SerraNola it is taking months now and there hasn't been any movement in getting this resolved. I still haven't seen any response from FamilySearch on their (il)legal position to block Dutch public records. Why is there no effective process to adress this? Where can I raise a complaint on how this is being handled?
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