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First search generally, then specifically. Example: don’t look for “François Van Damme”, but try “Van Damme” first and filter the search.
The person you are looking for does not appear? Try another spelling. Example: don’t only try “Vanwymelbeke”, but also “Van Wymelbeke” or “Vanwijmelbeke”.
Attention: the War Dead Register only lists Belgian fallen soldiers.  
The War Dead Register provides basic personal information (name, first name, date and place of birth, etc.) and does not contain military files (giving a complete overview of the military career). According to date of birth the files are kept either by the Royal Military Museum or by the Defence archives service. The files safeguarded at the Military Museum can be consulted on site (Parc du Cinquantenaire in Brussels). The files kept up till now by Defence are currently transferred to the General State Archives.
The date on which they will be once again available has not yet been determined.   

 

Archives of the Royal Military Museum 

Documentation Centre 
Parc du Cinquantenaire 3
1000 Brussels
E-mail : cdoc.klm-mra@warheritage.be   
Website: www.warheritage.be

Looking for local cemeteries? Scroll down to the overview by province at the bottom of this page.

Local cemeteries

In Belgium many military war dead were laid to rest in private graves in the local cemeteries of their former places of residence. After the armistice in 1918 many families indeed made their way to the former battlefields and, after clandestine exhumations, brought their relatives back home. The urge to have their fallen close by was indeed very strong. The government eventually agreed to this practice and countless bodies were then officially exhumed and reburied elsewhere. The number of First and Second World War casualties with private graves is estimated at some 15,000. 
Some cities and municipalities set up their local plots of honour, either with tombstones of their own design, or with regulation Belgian military tombstones. Municipalities are responsible for maintenance and upkeep, a task they have now been performing for over a century. 

Striving for maintenance 

The thousands of private graves are entirely the responsibility of the families. However, after more than 100 years, the concessions of these graves have often expired. Municipalities then decide whether or not those graves will be (permanently) preserved. In the 1960s and 1970s many cemeteries, mostly around parish churches, also had to make way for car parks or other facilities. Many graves of fallen soldiers have thus disappeared. Today some 9,000 are thought to remain.  
Unlike graves in military cemeteries and plots of honour private graves are not protected. Their preservation therefore constitutes a constant concern. It has recently been decided that these graves could be listed as important heritage. If approved, the municipality will take care of their maintenance. We can only hope that these graves will in that way benefit from some form of protection.
 

Locate a local cemetery.

Overview by province

Antwerp

Brussels Capital

East Flanders

Flemish Brabant

Hainaut

Liège

Limburg

Luxemburg

Namur

Walloon Brabant

West Flanders