HSNDB - databases for historical and contemporary research

29 May 2024 - 15:06

HSNDB is the collective name for the datasets containing Dutch individuals from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with which more than 500 publications have been written on issues such as life histories, social mobility, infant mortality and longevity. Of these, the Historical Sample of the Netherlands (HSN) and LINKS are the most prominent.

All data from the HSNDB are available through Dataverse, although access to some data requires a Dataverse account or explicit permission. HSNDB data is used by the CBG: Center for Family History, the Central Bureau of Statistics, and the Electoral Council, among others.

Questions related to the HSNDB can be sent to data@iisg.nl.

HSNDB logo - Historical Sample of the Netherlands DataBase

HSN

The Historical Sample of the Netherlands reconstructs the life-courses and household compositions of 85,500 people born between 1811 and 1922 from the Dutch population registers.

Visit the HSN page

LINKS

LINKS reconstructs the life courses and family relations of the millions of people who were born, married, or died in the Netherlands in the 19th and early-20th centuries.

Visit the LINKS page

HDNG

The Historical Database of Dutch Municipalities is the longest-lived historical database in Dutch historical demography and dates back to the 1970s.

Visit the HDNG page

Standardized occupations

The HSNDB standardized occupations dataset is the most complete overview of 19th- and 20th-century Dutch occupational titles.

Visit the Standardized Occupations page

SSHOC-NL

The HSNDB and the Central Bureau of Genealogy are working together to transcribe 6 million person records using OCR.

Visit SSHOC-NL

CLAIR-HD

CLAIR-HD gives an overview of how historians standardize their datasets and variables, so that researchers and database managers can easily find and reuse these schemas and ontologies.

Visit CLAIR-HD
CLAIR logo

Publication Overview

The various projects related to HSNDB have resulted in many publications throughout the years.

Other Publications