Regionaal Archief Nijmegen (RAN) is part of the municipality of Nijmegen and holds the historical records of the city of Nijmegen and eight neighboring municipalities. We also collect records that relate to the Nijmegen area created by individuals and local institutions, such as churches, schools, companies and associations. We act as memory of Nijmegen and the neighboring municipalities.

Tasks and mission

Regionaal Archief Nijmegen has about 25 employees and about 40 volunteers. Wilma Koolen is the municipal archivist of Nijmegen and the regional municipalities. We manage the government archives of the municipality of Nijmegen, of eight neighboring municipalities (Berg and Dal, Beuningen, Druten, Heumen, Lingewaard, Wijchen, Mook and Middelaar, West Maas and Waal), a regional water authority (Waterschap Rivierenland) and a number of joint arrangements (cooperative ventures between different public authorities).

In addition to government archives, we also manage archives of individuals, local and private organizations in Nijmegen and the region, audiovisual material and a library. We believe that private archives are an important addition to the government archives. We want to ensure that our archives are available to and used by a wide range of individuals and communities.

Legal Basis

We have a legal duty to store and manage government archives, make them accessible and make them available to the public. This gives every citizen the ability to audit the government, find legal evidence, and conduct historical research.

In addition, we supervise government archives that have not yet been transferred. According to the Public Records Act (1995), governmental organizations must ensure that their archival records are in good condition, properly arranged and accessible. The municipal archivist ensures that the municipalities comply with the Public Records Act.

Research

Our collections

In our Digital Reading Room you can browse our collections. Our historical records and search facilities are only available in Dutch. Therefore we collected a few tips on how to use our Digital Reading Room:

  • A simple search using a key word, inserted in the ‘vrij zoeken’ text field, will retrieve all information on this key word in our collection
  • You can also browse a certain collection by selecting one (archives, images, persons and locations, newspapers, address books, film and audio, library)
  • Use quote marks around names and phrases for an exact match (e.g, the term "middelbare school" returns results containing these words together in this order)
  • The asterisk broadens a search by finding words that start with the same letters (e.g., the term ‘kerk*’ will also return ‘kerkje’, ‘kerkgebouw’ etc.)
  • The ? symbol functions as a wildcard and fills in any single character (e.g., the term ‘b?kker’ will return ‘bakker’, ‘bekker’ etc.)
  • To exclude words from your search, put - in front of a word you want to leave out (e.g., the term ‘Waalbrug -Waalkade’ will return results containing ‘Waalbrug’ but excludes results that also contain ‘Waalkade’)

Genealogy

Regionaal Archief Nijmegen holds a range of resources that could be interesting for your own family tree research. Many records concerning genealogy are available online on the national database WieWasWie.

Second World War

Regionaal Archief Nijmegen holds a range of resources that could be interesting for research on the Second World War. If you have any questions, please contact us. We have a special photostream on Flickr called 'Liberators on Film'. This is a special collection of 684 pictures of Allied soldiers. They were involved in the liberation of Nijmegen or who were stationed at Nijmegen afterwards. 

Visit

Our opening hours are as follows:

  • Monday, Saturday, Sunday: closed
  • Tuesday: 11:00 am - 5:00 pm
  • Wednesday: 11:00 am - 5:00 pm
  • Thursday: 11:00 am - 5:00 pm
  • Friday: 11:00 am - 5:00 pm

If you know the access numbers of the documents you wish to look into during your visit, you can send them to us by e-mail, together with your name and the date of your upcoming visit. The documents will be ready for you upon arrival. You can also request documents during your visit in our reading room and most of the time you can also request documents through our Digital Reading Room with the button “Aanvragen”. In our reading room requesting documents might take 30-minute or so.

Contact information

If you have any questions, please contact us: +31 24 329 23 07 - Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.

Our visiting address is Mariënburg 27, Nijmegen.