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Description
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In 1828 in the Dutch colony of Suriname a civil registry was introduced according to the Dutch civil registration model (which in turn was based on the model introduced during the First French Republic). Suriname is a former Dutch plantation colony on the northern coast of South America, which became an independent country in 1975. During colonial times, it consisted of one city, Paramaribo, and a varying number of rural districts. Unlike in the Netherlands, the civil registry did not immediately apply to the entire population. Two groups of people were not registered. First, people in slavery were excluded, they were noted down in the separate slave registers. Only after they were freed from slavery did the enter into the civil registry, which was for the fast majority of enslaved people after the abolition of slavery on July 1, 1863. Second, people living outside of the colonial context were not registered either. This included most of the inhabitants of the interior who were missing from the civil registry until after the Second World War. Accordingly, maroons and indigenous people were only registered if they had a child or died in Paramaribo or the colonial districts, or if they married someone who was already registered. Free residents of Suriname were legally obliged to report every birth, death, marriage, acknowledgement, and divorce to a registrar. In this database you will find the birth certificates issued in Suriname´s capital city Paramaribo for the period 1828-1921 as recorded by the registrar. The birth certificates contain information on the birth, the newborn child, the parents, the informant, and the two witnesses. The birth certificate release ends in 1921 due to privacy protection. For the interested public, the information from this release has already been made available on the website of the National Archives of Suriname (NAS) in a searchable format, where also the scans of the original certificates may be found. The present release contains additional information in a structured data-base format on for example ages, places, occupations, and illiteracy. (2024-07-16)
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