rdeknijf/stamboom-nederland

StamboomNederland — Dutch GEDCOM Repository

Search uploaded family trees from Dutch genealogy researchers. Thousands of public GEDCOM projects with person records. Affiliated with CBG and WieWasWie.

Data quality warning: These are researcher-uploaded trees with no editorial review. Treat all data as Tier D (unverified secondary source). Use findings to guide archive lookups, not as authoritative evidence.

Primary method: WebFetch with search URL

Step 1: Search by surname

WebFetch -> https://stamboomnederland.nl/shared/search?searchTerm=SURNAME

Ask WebFetch: "Extract all person results with names, birth years and places, death years and places, and any project/tree information."

Parameters:

| Parameter | Description | Notes | |---|---|---| | searchTerm | Surname, place, or keyword | Single parameter, searches all fields |

Returns up to 50 results per page as HTML. Each result shows:

• Person name (surname, first name, tussenvoegsel)
• Birth year and place
• Death year and place
• Gender
• Patronymic (if present)
• Project/tree name

Example searches:

# Search for "Knijf" (returns Knijf, Knijff, van der Knijf variants)
WebFetch -> https://stamboomnederland.nl/shared/search?searchTerm=Knijf

# Search for "van den Hul"
WebFetch -> https://stamboomnederland.nl/shared/search?searchTerm=van+den+Hul

# Search for "Heezen"
WebFetch -> https://stamboomnederland.nl/shared/search?searchTerm=Heezen

Limitation: pagination requires Playwright

Only the first page (50 results) is accessible via URL. Subsequent pages use Apache Wicket stateful session links (wicket:interface=:0:...) that cannot be reproduced as bookmarkable URLs.

If more than 50 results are needed:

1. Navigate to the search URL with Playwright
2. Click the page 2/3/4 links in the pagination bar
3. Read results from each page

For most surname searches, 50 results is sufficient to find relevant trees.

Fallback: Playwright for advanced search

The advanced search form supports additional fields not available via URL:

• First name
• Tussenvoegsel (prefix)
• Surname
• Patronymic
• Birth date (day/month/year with exact/before/after/around qualifier)
• Death date (same)
• Relation filter ("has a relation with...")

Advanced search workflow (browser only):

1. Navigate to https://stamboomnederland.nl/
2. Click "Uitgebreid zoeken" (advanced search) button
3. Fill the form fields
4. Submit and read results
5. Results appear at a stateful Wicket URL — cannot be bookmarked

Etalage (showcase) pages

Some projects have public showcase pages:

https://www.stamboomnederland.nl/etalage/{Username}_{ProjectName}_{ID}/index.html

These are large static HTML exports of entire projects (can exceed 4MB). All persons are listed as in-page anchors (#p1, #p2, etc.). Not practical for targeted lookups but useful if you find a relevant project and want to explore the full tree.

Login requirements

• Simple search: No login required
• Advanced search: No login required (session-dependent)
• Person detail from results: No login required (session-dependent)
• Private projects: Login required

Quirks

• Built on Apache Wicket (Java) — all navigation beyond the initial search URL uses stateful session links
• No JSON API exists — all responses are HTML
• The searchTerm parameter searches across all fields (name, place, notes, patronymic) — no separate field filtering via URL
• Extra URL parameters (like firstName) are silently ignored
• Name variants are included in results (Knijf returns Knijff, van der Knijf, etc.)

Output format

## StamboomNederland Result

**Person:** [name]
**Born:** [year], [place]
**Died:** [year], [place]
**Patronymic:** [if present]
**Project/Tree:** [project name if shown]

**Confidence:** Tier D — researcher-uploaded GEDCOM (unverified, use as research lead only)

When results look promising, always verify against official archive records (civil registration, church books) before flagging in FINDINGS.md.