What is Schepenregister Vorst?

Question

I have just seen the source "Schepenregister Vorst" on a couple of pre-1700 profiles. No place, not even a country is added to the profiles so I am only guessing when adding the tag for Netherlands.

Answer 1

A schepenregister is a local government register. A schepen is a sort of alderman. Before 1800 marriages should often be registered first in the 'schepenregister'.

This is the schepenregister of a place called Vorst. There are two places called Vorst in Belgium. In the Netherlands there is a place called Voorst, that might be spelled like Vorst by some clerk, but it's probably one of the Belgian places.

Comments

Thanks for anwering!

So there would be some kind of book and a specific page/year should be added to make a better source?

I will add Belgium as a tag to see if there is any more help to get.

---

Yes, the Schepenregister is a book that is kept in an archive. A page, date and description of the thing that is registered, would improve the source vastly.

In my experience the Belgian archives haven't digitized most of their registers, in contrast to the Dutch archives. So it could be hard to find scans of the books online. However there may be scans of it made by the LDS church on FamilySearch.

---

You can try FamilySearch Catalog . Type in the city name and the rest will be completed automatically. You then have the following choice for Belgium: Belgium, Antwerpen, Vorst and Belgium, Brabant, Vorst. 

Also you can try: Rijksarchief België

Answer 2

Hi!

As already explained in the answer of Koen: these are records kept by a 'Schepenbank', which is a council of aldermen.

I looked up what profiles (I think) you refer to. Based on the profiles related to it, I assume this 'Vorst' refers to the one in Antwerp, Belgium. It can be accessed on FamilySearch here: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/46715. 

I completely agree with you that the info and sources provided are not detailed enough, certainly for pre-1700 profiles. I'll try to contact the pm and see if we can work together to improve the profiles.

Thanks for noticing this!

Filip