Familiekunde Brussel – in English
Not all these web pages are translated in English. For specific information about the activities of our association, you will have to consult the Dutch version of our website.
“Familiekunde Brussel” is a small non-profit organisation with no paid staff. The organisation runs entirely on unpaid volunteers. The volunteers manage the association, organise activities and answer your questions about your genealogical research. They do this in their spare time, in the evenings and at weekends.
What “Familiekunde Brussel” does for you
We work throughout the Brussels Capital Region, which consists of 19 municipalities. The purpose of our association is to organise and coordinate activities related to genealogy, family history and related disciplines, both inside and outside the Brussels Capital Region.
“Familiekunde Brussel”:- organises activities related to genealogy and heraldry in the Brussels Capital Region;
- promotes the study of family history, organises training courses and encourages people to reconstruct their family history;
- advises its members on their personal genealogical research;
- contributes to the preservation and safekeeping of family archives and historical documents;
- supports, advises and guides acknowledged socio-cultural and educational organisations.
Genealogical research
“Familiekunde Brussel” does not carry out personal research into your family tree on your behalf. But we can advise you. Questions in English are welcome.
Contact
If you did not find what you were looking for on this page, you can ask your question using our contact form. Messages in English are welcome and will be answered.Brussels as a starting point
The Brussels-Capital Region comprises 19 municipalities. These municipalities are autonomous: they are therefore not neighbourhoods or districts. Each municipality consequently has its own administration, comprising a mayor and aldermen, and its own municipal council. Each municipality also has its own civil registry, its own population records office and its own municipal archives.
The City of Brussels is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region. The city comprises the historic centre (the Pentagone), Avenue Louise and the Bois de la Cambre in the south, and the ‘sub-municipalities’ of Haren, Laeken and Neder-Over-Heembeek in the north. Until 1921, these were independent municipalities. In that year, they were incorporated into the City of Brussels. The archives of these former independent municipalities are held at the City of Brussels Archives.
The 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region are (in alphabetical order according to the Dutch names, with the French name in brackets if it differs from the Dutch):- Anderlecht
- Brussel (Bruxelles), with Haren, Laken (Laeken) and Neder-Over-Heembeek
- Elsene (Ixelles)
- Etterbeek
- Evere
- Ganshoren
- Jette, formerly also known as Sint-Pieters-Jette (Jette-Saint-Pierre)
- Koekelberg
- Oudergem (Auderghem)
- Schaarbeek (Schaerbeek)
- Sint-Agatha-Berchem (Berchem-Sainte-Agathe)
- Sint-Gillis (Saint-Gilles), formerly also known as Opbrussel
- Sint-Jans-Molenbeek (Molenbeek-Saint-Jean)
- Sint-Joost-ten-Node (Saint-Josse-ten-Noode)
- Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe (Woluwe-Saint-Lambert), formerly also known as Opweule
- Sint-Pieters-Woluwe (Woluwe-Saint-Pierre)
- Ukkel (Uccle)
- Vorst (Forest)
- Watermaal-Bosvoorde (Watermael-Boitsfort)
Language use in Brussels
The 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region are bilingual. This bilingualism refers to the official languages used by the authorities in their dealings with the public: French and Dutch. This also explains why the municipalities have names in both French and Dutch. In practice, Brussels has been multilingual for a very long time. More than 100 languages are spoken in the Region.