Any idea where I can find belgian birth records?

Question:

Any idea where I can find belgian birth records?

Need to access birth records in belgium for the year 1852. Do you know of a site where i can do this?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I'm sorry to burst everyone's bubbles, but Belgium does not have birth records on the internet. Belgium was even given the opportunity to join with the Netherlands and Luxembourg in Genlias, but they refused. There are a few people who've transcribed records they've looked up, but nothing on the national level. Privacy laws aren't even lenient enough to allow most Belgian records to be released to the public in the same way we do.

Belgium does not archive their records like the US and the rest of Europe. Belgium leaves all records in the town where they were registered. It's a small country with 2 official languages stemming from 2 ethnic groups who don't trust each other. They have never agreed on what to do with records so they left them where they were.

If you want birth records from any town in Belgium you must know the name of the town of birth. Then you write to the town hall and request a copy of the record. You can also write to the parishes in town requesting baptismal records for your family members if the town can't find them. Not all births were in civil registers in those days.

If you have trouble finding the exact town, and on the strong chance that your ancestor sailed from Amsterdam or Rotterdam, you can contact the Dutch archives to get passenger information. That is often the best chance for answering questions and getting direction on our Flemish and Walloon ancestors.

Also, the local Church did NOT keep all birth records for the country. That was France. But Belgium was created during Napoleonic times and came under the Napoleonic Code. They have registered all births, marriages and deaths on the civil registers since 1831. The Church kept baptismal records, but they're not in place of the civil registers, they're in addition to the civil registers.