In July, archivist Till Bodden uploaded the first 6,300 indexing units (the archival term for the indexing or "metadata" of files) to the NRW archive portal.
This means that users can now independently search the holdings from Kevelaer and the former Amt Kervenheim up to around 1970 online and gain an overview of the archive material of the Kevelaer municipal archive. The actual files, which are part of the metadata, are gradually being digitized. The finding aid in the NRW Archive Portal - basically a directory of the city archive's holdings - is therefore a cornerstone and a further step towards the ongoing digitization of the archive. Further information will be added in the future.
The site can be found at https://www.archive.nrw.de/stadtarchiv-kevelaer. If you click on "Go directly to the navigational search", you will find the holdings of the Kevelaerer Stadtarchiv in a tree structure. Thanks to keyword searches and thematic organization, the metadata of the official documents and old holdings can be searched there. "Once you have found a document or file you are interested in via the directory in the archive portal, you can request it from us in the archive via the signature and view it digitally or on site," says archivist Till Bodden about using the archive portal.
The oldest documents in the archive date from the early 17th century. They are mainly tax lists and documents on the care of the poor in Kevelaer.