Searching for soldiers fighting for the Dutch Republic 1595-1795

An index to the "Staat van Oorlog" (States of War) has recently been added to the website of the Brabants Historisch Informatie Centrum (BHIC). It’s a Who-Was-Who in the Dutch army of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. The index can help genealogists who are looking for information about military ancestors, because the States of War zooms in to the level of the individual companies. This resource can thus greatly simplify your search for military ancestors in The Netherlands.

Marriage registrations of soldiers, may mention the name of the captain under whom the soldier in question served, but it is often quite a search to find out to which regiment that captain and his company belonged. With the data from the "Staat van Oorlog" that search becomes a lot easier.

Because the manpower potential of the small Republic's territory was so limited, the States-General had to look beyond Dutch borders for a large part of their recruits. Fortunately, in those days foreign authorities did often not object to recruitment efforts within their territories. The Republic therefore was able to obtain large numbers of recruits from Scotland, England, the Holy Roman Empire, France, and later also the Protestant Swiss Cantons.

soldier

The entire content of the "Staat van Oorlog" material was copied - as much as possible - and incorporated into the database. It contains around 400,000 registrations over the period 1595-1795, but the data for the first 50 years is incomplete.

Each entry contains a meticulous and detailed summary of the ranks of the Dutch State Army down to the level of individual companies: who was in charge, how many men did he have under him, and what were the costs? In addition, the average summary-list contains additional data, such as salaries for officers, commissioners who arranged the signing-on, guardsmen, ammunition masters, public prosecutors, teachers, preachers and gunners. A further distinction is also made between cavalry and foot soldiers. Included are military personnel stationed in multiple areas of The Netherlands, for example in Utrecht, Ommerschans, or Delfzijl.
Because these summaries were created annually, and always according to the same fixed schedule, this source is also ideally suited to follow the careers of officers in the State Army.

Link to the Database of soldiers fighting for the Dutch Republic:

https://www.bhic.nl/onderzoeken/staten-van-oorlog

This is an example with Scottish soldiers:

Sources: Uitleg over zoeken naar Staatse militairen, Hulp bij zoeken naar Staatse militairen, Informatie over staatse militairen online toegankelijk gemaakt, Dutch States Army.