Place:Alblasserwaard, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands

Alblasserwaard is a general region in the basin of the river RHINE. Most of the area is very low, kept dry by pumping stations (formely by water windmills). It is bound by the river LEK in the north, river NOORD in the west and river MERWEDE in the south. On the east side were the river ZEDERIK and the river LINGE.
There were many small hamlets, each having a church and therefore church records. Between 1812 and 1820 most hamlets became municipalities (gemeenten) keeping civil records. In the second half of the 20th century some villages have expanded considerably. The smaller hamlets have now (2013) been merged into 8 new large municipalities.

Sources

• Wikipedia NL (in Dutch)

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Alblasserwaard.