The first step in doing a locational search is to get a modern map and start to look for it. I just google to see if the town has a website and find out the administrative structure for a town, which will be important for finding the records. Something I never learned in high school is that a gazeteer
For example, I live in Canby, Oregon - in Clackamas county. In modern times my vital records are handled by the state, and my marriage records are probably also located in the county where I was married. So if I were in the future looking for me I'd have to know to look in the state capital in Salem or the county courthouse in Oregon City, assuming that I was born here and had these events occur here.
(I'll just go stream of consciousness here:) So, we'll start with Beets, Netherlands. http://www.familysearch.org click library tab click Family History Library Catalog in the banner below the tab click place search type: Beets as part of Netherlands The computer returned: Netherlands, Friesland, Beets Netherlands, Noord-Holland, Beets
I don't know enough about the Netherlands to be able to know the difference and they could possibly be the same place with different names. At this point I could google for more information, or I might actually know that I wanted the Friesland version, so I am going to click there.
The computer returned as links:
Place Netherlands, Friesland, Beets
References: (See Also) Netherlands, Friesland, Opsterland Topics: Netherlands, Friesland, Beets - Church records Netherlands, Friesland, Beets - Names, Personal
This tells me a couple of things - Beets is in Friesland, and is associated with another record center Opsterland (which guessing now, might be an administrative district). Generally wills and probate records are not kept in the little towns, but rather in the next designation. (So in my personal example, probate is kept in the county courthouse in Oregon City and not Canby where I live). When I clicked on the church records link I saw that they do go back to the 16th century, so this is an encouraging sign that there may be probates microfilmed too.
Okay time to google. There is a Wikipedia entry! It tells me that it is in the municipality of Zeevand and in Noord-Holland province. But first I am going to click the see also link to "(See Also) Netherlands, Friesland, Opsterland ". Ah ha. There are the court records for the area. Back to the wikipedia where I discover that there are 2 Beets, which is the reason for the 2 entries. Sometimes it just means that they are just classified differently and it pulls up 2 separate results for each area. When I click on the Nord-Holland Beets back from my original search the court records show up on this search. So when I click on the links provided on either of the court records (either the Opsterland/Friesland or the Nord-Holland) I see that the Nord-Holland query is a little weird because usually you just pick up microfilm or call numbers:
Since there is a copyright and a recent date, this could be an internet file, and it is worth contacting the Salt Lake library to find out how to access the data.
Back now to the Friesland Beets and the court records I found under Opsterland -
The return is (I've abbreviated for what I want to see): Title: Rechterlijke registers, 1577-1812 Physical: op 12 microfilmspoelen ; 16 mm.
Okay so the rechterlijke (and I don't know what this is either so here is where building the limited legal vocabulary you will need comes into play). Let's just assume we want to order these. One must click on the "film notes" button in the upper right hand corner of the page.
Re: Olde documents
For example, I live in Canby, Oregon - in Clackamas county. In modern times my vital records are handled by the state, and my marriage records are probably also located in the county where I was married. So if I were in the future looking for me I'd have to know to look in the state capital in Salem or the county courthouse in Oregon City, assuming that I was born here and had these events occur here.
(I'll just go stream of consciousness here:)
So, we'll start with Beets, Netherlands.
http://www.familysearch.org
click library tab
click Family History Library Catalog in the banner below the tab
click place search
type: Beets as part of Netherlands
The computer returned:
Netherlands, Friesland, Beets
Netherlands, Noord-Holland, Beets
I don't know enough about the Netherlands to be able to know the difference and they could possibly be the same place with different names. At this point I could google for more information, or I might actually know that I wanted the Friesland version, so I am going to click there.
The computer returned as links:
Place Netherlands, Friesland, Beets
References: (See Also) Netherlands, Friesland, Opsterland
Topics: Netherlands, Friesland, Beets - Church records
Netherlands, Friesland, Beets - Names, Personal
This tells me a couple of things - Beets is in Friesland, and is associated with another record center Opsterland (which guessing now, might be an administrative district). Generally wills and probate records are not kept in the little towns, but rather in the next designation. (So in my personal example, probate is kept in the county courthouse in Oregon City and not Canby where I live). When I clicked on the church records link I saw that they do go back to the 16th century, so this is an encouraging sign that there may be probates microfilmed too.
Okay time to google. There is a Wikipedia entry! It tells me that it is in the municipality of Zeevand and in Noord-Holland province. But first I am going to click the see also link to "(See Also) Netherlands, Friesland, Opsterland ". Ah ha. There are the court records for the area. Back to the wikipedia where I discover that there are 2 Beets, which is the reason for the 2 entries. Sometimes it just means that they are just classified differently and it pulls up 2 separate results for each area. When I click on the Nord-Holland Beets back from my original search the court records show up on this search. So when I click on the links provided on either of the court records (either the Opsterland/Friesland or the Nord-Holland) I see that the Nord-Holland query is a little weird because usually you just pick up microfilm or call numbers:
Topic
Netherlands, Noord-Holland, Beets - Court records
Titles
Schepenakten, 1357-1850 / Hoorn (Noord-Holland). Schepenbank
© 2002 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.
Since there is a copyright and a recent date, this could be an internet file, and it is worth contacting the Salt Lake library to find out how to access the data.
Back now to the Friesland Beets and the court records I found under Opsterland -
The return is (I've abbreviated for what I want to see):
Title: Rechterlijke registers, 1577-1812
Physical: op 12 microfilmspoelen ; 16 mm.
Okay so the rechterlijke (and I don't know what this is either so here is where building the limited legal vocabulary you will need comes into play). Let's just assume we want to order these. One must click on the "film notes" button in the upper right hand corner of the page.
End part one - my post is too long