Gemeentearchief Kalmthout

For centuries, Kalmthout was primarily an agricultural municipality. Since the construction of the Antwerp-Roosendaal railroad in the 19th century, a large part of the municipality has grown into a residential area surrounded by agricultural and nature areas. The beautiful heath municipality of Kalmthout currently has an area of ​​approximately 6,000 ha and consists of five neighborhoods: Center, Village-Hill, Achterbroek, Nieuwmoer and Heide. In the north-west of the municipality there are a few streets from the Hoek district to Kalmthout. Kalmthout currently has 18,000 inhabitants. 

Kalmthout is one of the few cities where documents from before 1800 were not ceded to the National Archives, but are still present onsite. So in addition to the ordinary civil registry and population registers one can also find documents on all baptisms, marriages and burials from 1603 onwards, censuses, municipal and college records, construction records, military records, lists of causes of death, incoming and outgoing correspondence etc. In addition to paper documents, the archive also stores objects, photos and audiovisual material. The photo collection includes more than 800 reproductions of the well-known Hoelen postcards: pictures of Kalmthout drawn between 1900 and 1935. Over time these will be scanned and can be viewed on the website. Many documents have already been restored and can now be consulted on microfiche. Some sources are already on CD-ROM. 

Everything can be consulted free of charge during the opening hours of the archive, and to the extent that the Public Records Act permits its consultation (most documents are only released when they are 100 years old).