diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 915717e..b265c61 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ InfrastructureModels.jl Change Log
 ==================================
 
 ### Staged
-- nothing
+- Fix support for strongly type network data (#92)
 
 ### v0.7.7
 - Fix support for utf-8 in matlab parser (#91)
diff --git a/src/core/base.jl b/src/core/base.jl
index 8886a0e..619fb42 100644
--- a/src/core/base.jl
+++ b/src/core/base.jl
@@ -209,7 +209,7 @@ function _populate_ref_it!(refs::Dict{Symbol, <:Any}, data_it::Dict{String, <:An
     
         for (key, item) in nw_data
             if !(key in global_keys)
-                if isa(item, Dict{String, Any}) && _iscomponentdict(item)
+                if typeof(item) <: Dict{String, <:Any} && _iscomponentdict(item)
                     item_lookup = Dict{Int, Any}([(parse(Int, k), v) for (k, v) in item])
                     ref[Symbol(key)] = item_lookup
                 else
diff --git a/test/base.jl b/test/base.jl
index 6e368b2..ef566bd 100644
--- a/test/base.jl
+++ b/test/base.jl
@@ -55,6 +55,11 @@ end
     @test ref[:it][:foo][:nw][0][:comp][2]["a"] == 3
 end
 
+@testset "ref initialize keytype" begin
+    ref = ref_initialize(generic_si_network_data_native, "foo", Set(["per_unit", "dict"]))
+    @test keytype(ref[:it][:foo][:nw][0][:comp]) == Int
+end
+
 
 abstract type MyAbstractInfrastructureModel <: AbstractInfrastructureModel end
 mutable struct MyInfrastructureModel <: MyAbstractInfrastructureModel @im_fields end
diff --git a/test/common.jl b/test/common.jl
index 3d884ad..f66fddb 100644
--- a/test/common.jl
+++ b/test/common.jl
@@ -29,6 +29,34 @@ generic_si_network_data = JSON.parse("""{
     }
 }""")
 
+# used to check that ref_initialize works correctly with strongly typed data
+generic_si_network_data_native = Dict(
+    "per_unit" => false,
+    "a" => 1,
+    "b" => "bloop",
+    "list" =>  [1, "two", 3.0, false],
+    "dict" =>  Dict("a" => 1, "b" => 2.0, "c" => true, "d" => "bloop"),
+    "comp" => Dict(
+        "1" => Dict(
+            "a" => 1,
+            "b" => 2,
+            "c" => "same",
+            "status" => 1
+        ),
+        "2" => Dict(
+            "a" => 3,
+            "b" => 4,
+            "c" => "same",
+            "status" => 0
+        ),
+        "3" => Dict(
+            "a" => 5,
+            "b" => 6,
+            "c" => "same",
+            "d" => false
+        )
+    )
+)
 
 generic_mi_network_data = JSON.parse("""
 {