West-Brabants Archief

What West-Brabants Archief does

West-Brabants Archief (WBA) is a publicly funded regional archive institution serving nine municipalities in the West-Brabant region of the Netherlands (Bergen op Zoom, Etten-Leur, Halderberge, Moerdijk, Roosendaal, Rucphen, Steenbergen, Woensdrecht, and Zundert). Founded in 2016 and headquartered at Hofstraat 2b in Bergen op Zoom, the organization manages centuries of municipal records including notarial archives, population registers, cadastral data, building permit dossiers (139,140+ digitized), council minutes, and the Ben & Thom photographic collection of approximately half a million negatives. It operates under a cooperative governance model with no private investors or venture backing.

The institution delivers its services through both physical and digital channels. The physical studiezaal (research room) is open by appointment on Tuesdays and Thursdays, while the digital portfolio includes the E-Loket Bouwdossiers portal for building permit downloads, the Voorouders genealogy search platform, the Beeldbank image database, the Kadaster Archiefviewer for cadastral research, and Bladeren in Bronnen for browsing scanned original records. Additional offerings include monthly audio heritage stories (Erfgoedverhalen), beginner genealogy courses priced at €75 per participant delivered in partnership with the Nederlandse Genealogische Vereniging, and specialized address conversion tools for historical property research.

Revenue is dominated by recurring municipal contributions from the nine member municipalities, supplemented by modest fees for genealogy courses, scan requests, and specialized research services. Building dossier downloads are provided free of charge. The organization maintains an 11-50 employee footprint and distributes content through its website alongside Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram channels. Strategic partnerships with the Brabants Historisch Informatie Centrum (BHIC) and the Mastboom-Brosens Stichting extend its research and support capabilities.

Name

West-Brabants Archief

Legal name

West-Brabants Archief

Website

https://westbrabantsarchief.nl

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

West-Brabants Archief is a publicly funded regional archive serving nine municipalities in West-Brabant, Netherlands, providing digital and physical access to historical records, genealogical data, building permits, cadastral records, and photographic archives for researchers, property buyers, and civil servants.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Archival Services

NAICS

Libraries and Archives (51921), Libraries and Archives (519210), Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (5192)

akta.pro primary industry

Libraries, Archives & Special Collections (BPAGAHAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Public Libraries & Information Services (BPAIACAO), Archives, Special Collections & Preservation Operations (Rare Materials, Conservation) (EDAEAGAJ), Government & Public Sector Archives Storage (Municipal/State/Federal) (TLALALAE)

Keywords

• Regional archive services
• Genealogical research
• Building permit records
• Cadastral archive access
• Historical document preservation

Headquarters

HQ city

Bergen Op Zoom

HQ country

Netherlands

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Public Funding: As a regional government archive, West-Brabants Archief is primarily funded through municipal contributions from its nine member municipalities: Bergen op Zoom, Etten-Leur, Halderberge, Moerdijk, Roosendaal, Rucphen, Steenbergen, Woensdrecht, and Zundert.
2. Educational Programs: Revenue from genealogy courses offered to the public, including the Stamboomonderzoek (family history research) course for beginners at €75 per participant.
3. Service Fees: Fees for scan requests and specialized research services. Building dossier downloads are currently free via the E-Loket portal.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

West-Brabants Archief manages, preserves, and provides public access to historical archives from nine municipalities in the West-Brabant region of the Netherlands. Its core offering includes digitized and physical access to archival records covering notarial archives, population registers, cadastral records, building permits, council minutes, and a photographic collection of approximately 500,000 negatives, supported by a research room, online portals, scan request services, and genealogy education programs.

Product overview

West-Brabants Archief operates as a regional archive serving nine municipalities in West-Brabant, offering a comprehensive digital platform for genealogical, historical, and property research. The core digital offerings include the E-loket Bouwdossiers (building permit portal), the Voorouders genealogical search platform, the Beeldbank image database, and the Kadaster Archiefviewer for cadastral research. Physical services are provided through a studiezaal (reading room) in Bergen op Zoom. Additional resources include notarial archives, population registers, heritage audio stories, and renumbering lists for historical address research. The organization also digitizes and provides access to council minutes, archival records, and special collections including the half-million negative Ben & Thom photo archive documenting regional life from 1970-1999.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• E-loket Bouwdossiers: Digital portal for requesting building permit documents and construction drawings from the archive.

Products and services

• E-loket Bouwdossiers Online portal allowing users to search by address and request or download digitized building permit dossiers and construction drawings as PDF files for five West-Brabant municipalities. Free of charge. Targeted at property buyers, homeowners, and renovation researchers.
• Voorouders (Ancestors) Genealogy Portal Online search portal enabling users to query birth, marriage, death records, population registers, and church records (DTB) across the nine municipalities served by the archive. Targeted at genealogists and family historians researching West-Brabant ancestry.
• Beeldbank (Image Database) Searchable online database of historical photographs, negatives, and visual materials from the West-Brabant region, including the Ben & Thom photographic archive of approximately 500,000 negatives. Targeted at historians, researchers, journalists, and the general public.
• Kadaster Archiefviewer Digital cadastral research program available in the studiezaal for researching historical property records including minuutplans, OAT's, SAT's, Register 71, hulpkaarten, veldwerk, and leggerartikelen from 1832 onwards. Targeted at property researchers and historians.
• Bladeren in Bronnen (Browse Sources) Digital browsing tool providing access to scanned original archive materials, including notarial records, council minutes, and other historical documents from member municipalities. Targeted at researchers and historians.
• Studiezaal (Reading Room) Physical research facility at Hofstraat 2b in Bergen op Zoom where visitors can access the Kadaster Archiefviewer, view original documents, and receive staff research assistance. Open by appointment on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Targeted at in-person researchers, genealogists, and property historians.
• Genealogy Course for Beginners (Cursus Stamboomonderzoek) Beginner genealogy course priced at €75 per participant, covering 6 Friday morning sessions (10:00-12:15) including genealogy software training (GensDataPro and Aldfaer), practical workshops, and a tour of the underground archive depot. Delivered in collaboration with the Nederlandse Genealogische Vereniging. Targeted at individuals beginning family history research.
• Scan Request Service Paid service allowing researchers to request digitized scans of specific archival records not yet available in the online portals. Targeted at genealogists, property researchers, and historians needing individual document access.

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Brabants Historisch Informatie Centrum (BHIC)coreTechnology or IntegrationThe BHIC serves as a partner organization for accessing historical cadastral records. Minuutplans and OAT's can be consulted online through BHIC, and hypotheekregisters (mortgage registers) no. 4 are available at the BHIC studiezaal. This partnership extends research capabilities beyond West-Brabant's own collections.
• Nederlandse Genealogische Vereniging (Dutch Genealogical Society)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe organization partners with Dick Waalboer from the Nederlandse Genealogische Vereniging to deliver genealogy courses for beginners at West-Brabants Archief. This provides educational expertise for their public programming.
• Mastboom-Brosens StichtingminorOthersThe Mastboom-Brosens Foundation is listed as a related organization, suggesting a supporting relationship with the archive's activities.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Gelders Archief: Regional archive for Gelderland offering studiezaal access, digitized civil registry and notarial records, and online research tools. Closely comparable operating model, scope of collections, and municipal funding structure.
• Het Utrechts Archief: Regional archive for Utrecht province with physical and digital research services, population registers, notarial archives, and educational programming. Closely comparable scale, scope, and funding model to WBA.
• Regionaal Archief Tilburg: Regional archive serving Midden-Brabant municipalities with comparable municipal-government funding, studiezaal, genealogy collections, and digital portals. Operates with a similar mandate to WBA but in an adjoining sub-region of Brabant.
• Noord-Hollands Archief: Regional archive covering multiple municipalities in North Holland, offering studiezaal services, digitized collections, and genealogy tools. Operates a similar multi-municipality cooperative model and product mix.
• Erfgoed Leiden en Omstreken: Regional heritage organization for Leiden and surrounding municipalities, combining archival, museum, and historical society functions. Comparable scale and multi-municipality mandate with similar genealogy and property-research use cases.
• Brabants Historisch Informatie Centrum (BHIC): Regional historical information center for North Brabant operating studiezaal access, cadastral records (minuutplans, OATs, mortgage registers), and digital research tools. Already a strategic partner of West-Brabants Archief and serves overlapping municipal and genealogy audiences in the same province.
• Stadsarchief Breda: City archive of Breda, located within the West-Brabant region, providing similar municipal archival, genealogy, and image-database services. Direct geographic overlap with WBA's catchment and a likely comparable user base of property researchers and genealogists.

Broad incumbents

• Stadsarchief Amsterdam: Municipal archive of Amsterdam — significantly larger in scale, collections, and digital tooling than WBA, but operating the same kind of studiezaal, genealogy portal, and image database for a single-city (rather than multi-municipal regional) audience.
• Nationaal Archief: National archive of the Netherlands providing broader, country-level collections, research infrastructure, and the Archieven.nl aggregation platform. Functions as a higher-tier incumbent whose tools overlap with WBA's use cases.

Emerging players

• Archieven.nl: National aggregator portal that exposes inventories from Dutch municipal, regional, and national archives. Functions as an emerging digital-front-door alternative where users may bypass regional archives like WBA for initial discovery.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/westbrabantsarchief
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/west-brabants-archief
• Instagraminstagram.com/wbarchief

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about West-Brabants Archief