He was born in a canal house at Keizersgracht to Gerbrand Pieter Elias, wealthy member of the Amsterdam regency family Elias, and Johanna Engelberta ter Meulen.
[1] During this time he collected data on Amsterdam regency members from the start of the Dutch republic in 1578 until the French occupation in 1795.
He was able to collect data on 14,000 people, which he published in 1903 and 1905 as a two-volume work called De vroedschap van Amsterdam 1578-1795.
The introduction to the first volume was published separately as Geschiedenis van het Amsterdamsche Regentenpatriciaat in 1923.
In 1922 he was awarded an honorary title from the University of Amsterdam, and in 1927 he became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).