Council minutes Chur 1889: transcription, translation and background explanations
The original document may be viewed here. Below you find a line-by-line transcription and translation. As the meaning of this text may not be entirely clear to people not familiar with the local circumstances - despite translation to English - I will also give some background explanations further down. BEWARE - may become a bit lengthy 😉.
"... and in fact he would have to leave already on April 3. He asks the authorities to give him fr. 170 instead of his common property, which he would have received if he had stayed here. The request is accompanied by some thoroughly good certificates, issued by former masters of Peter Jecklin, as well as by some lines of the orphan father Camenisch supporting the request. Considering that Peter Jecklin, according to his age, would have been entitled to a common property, but due to his continuous absence, could not receive one, further considering that on the one hand Peter Jecklin by his personal efficiency well deserves the requested support, and on the other hand the common property regulations do not prevent it, on the occasion of the next common property draw, to withhold the advanced money to cover the common property treasury for the advance made to Jecklin, thereupon it was decided to pay Peter Jecklin the requested fr. 170.- on the common property to be drawn for him next fall, but to hand over the money for Jecklin to the emigration agent in question."
The document is from Council Minutes of the "Bürgergemeinde" Chur, dated 29 March 1889 - so it will not be concerned with Peter Jecklin (1808-1848), but likely a grandson of the same name, who emigrated to the USA in 1889.
Let's begin with the rules of Swiss citizenship: if you are Swiss you are first citizen of your place of citizenship, then of the canton (state), and only third of the Swiss Federation. In earlier times citizenship functioned as the social security system of the citizens of a community: if a citizen could not support himself, the "Bürgergemeinde" had to support him. This is obsolete today - but the principle of citizenship still applies. If a foreigner wants to become a citizen, the "Bürgergemeinde" is where he has to be accepted first - only then canton and federal state get involved.
One has to differentiate between "Bürgergemeinde" (citizens community) and "politische Gemeinde" (political community). Whilst "politische Gemeinde" includes all persons living there (irrespective of their citizenship), the "Bürgergemeinde" includes all citizens (irrespective of where they are living). "Bürgerrecht" (citizenship) will be inherited by birth from the father (or mother, if father is not known). As a consequence an individual may hold citizenship of a place where the family hasn't lived for generations. A nice consequence for genealogy research is, that data on citizens are collected at their place of citizenship - so even if a family is moving around, you don't have to trace their wanderings. This obviously requires that events (like births) were reported back - but families were motivated to do so because, if not, citizenship (i.e. the social security "membership") was lost.
"Bürgergemeinde" would own common assets, usually farmland or woods, to be used free of charge within defined limits by their citizens. There will also have been an income of some sort. And now we come to the above minutes:
"Considering that Peter Jecklin, according to his age, would have been entitled to a common property, but due to his continuous absence, could not receive one, [...] and on the other hand the common property regulations do not prevent it, on the occasion of the next common property draw, to withhold the advanced money to cover the common property treasury for the advance made to Jecklin, thereupon it was decided to pay Peter Jecklin the requested fr. 170.- on the common property to be drawn for him next fall, ..."
As Peter Jecklin was of age, he would have been entitled to use common property, e.g. keep his animals on the common farmland (the "Allmend") or collect fire wood from the woods. He could not do this, however, as he was not living locally. As a consequence he was entitled to financial compensation, decided / paid out during the "Gemeingüterausloosung" next fall. This would have been too late for Peter Jecklin, so the council decided to advance the money.
The point to consider in this context: to support people fallen into poverty cost money, so - like insurances today - the "Bürgergemeinde" was quite happy to get rid of people by emigration, reducing the risk to have to pay for them at a later stage. For this reason the money was not given to Peter Jecklin but the emigration agent, to make sure he actually left the country.
Back to the document: "..., as well as by some lines of the orphan father Camenisch supporting the request.". Camenisch is a fairly common surname in Graubünden - see the Register of Swiss Surnames. I have translated "Waisenvater" as "orphan father": it is an administrative position difficult to translate. As mentioned before, one of the duties of the "Bürgergemeinde" was to support people who could not support themselves, incl. orphans. So this person had to manage the orphanage fund. His involvement here is possibly due to the fact that a woman (at this time) was not a "juristic person of her own right" - her father, later her husband was responsible for all deals on her behalf. When there was no husband (e.g. for a widow or mother of an illegitimate child) a guardian was appointed - could be a close relative (brother, ...) or an official like the "Waisenvater".
According to the accompanying mail these minutes are kept at the archive of the "Bürgergemeinde". It further states "The family register is not kept by us, but the Plessur registry office in Chur". So - what's a "family register" ("Bürgerregister")? With several document names meaning rather similar documents the issue is a bit complicated, and it is even more difficult to explain in English.
In 1876 the modern (basically the same as today, just without computers) "Zivilstandsregister" were started - for all of Switzerland (for the first time). Before 1876 it depends on the canton what sources are available.
In early 19th century the Federal State required cantons to start keeping "Bürgerregister". Canton St.Gallen e.g. required in 1834 the "Bürgergemeinde" to organise these - canton Thurgau required the parishes to do this, parallel to their birth, wedding, burial registers - and in many parishes these are called "Familienbuch" instead of "Bürgerregister". Large communities had similar registers long before that - e.g. the city of St.Gallen started in 1683 and paid an archivist to retrospectively collect these data since the first church records (1527) - see Stemmatologia Sangallensis. Graubünden started a bit later (1860). Luzern refused completely - but beginning in 1903 they started to retrospectively compile data.
Graubünden started the "Bürgerregister" in 1860 - so Peter Jecklin (emigrating 1889) should be listed in that. He will not be found in the "Zivilstandsregister" unless he got married between 1876 and his emigration. Reason: whilst the "Bürgerregister" compiles data of an entire family on one page, the Zivilstandsregister started in 1876 were only birth, marriage and death registers (that is: single events) ... compilation of entire families were introduced as late as 1929 and called "Familienregister". Due to this the "Zivilstandsamt" (Civil Registry Office) will have kept the old "Bürgerregister" up-to-date (until at least 1929) and will be able to provide this information.
I assume this was now sufficiently confusing to provoke further questions 😉 ... feel free to ask them!
Kommentare
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This was very good! Thank you!
And, yes, this DOES bring up a couple questions, although perhaps not what you might expect;
My first question has to do with citizenship. It appears my husband's 2nd ggf came to the US around 1854-1855, which would make him the last direct-line ancestor to be born in Switzerland. Would this mean that my husband would, technically, be a citizen? And, if so, what's involved to prove this?
My second question has to do with what I'll just term as family group sheets, information on the entire family on one sheet (since it seems those had several names). My husband's family was from Canton Bern (Langenthal). I have been able to find the baptismal records back to his 3rd ggf, and all his siblings, by going page-by-page (in the Bern State Archive site), which told me when his 4th gg-parents were married and where they were from, and the name of his 5th ggf. However, then the records get really hard to read. So I was wondering if perhaps I've missed some records of family group sheets, somewhere?
And I WILL say that I found the Swiss records fabulous! I wish EVERY country had such fabulous access!
Thank you,
Margie
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"My first question has to do with citizenship. It appears my husband's 2nd ggf came to the US around 1854-1855, which would make him the last direct-line ancestor to be born in Switzerland. Would this mean that my husband would, technically, be a citizen? And, if so, what's involved to prove this?"
I am not a specialist on this type of question - so take my answer with caution!
The rules of Swiss citizenship are (not unexpectedly) much more complex than my short summary. In order to keep the offspring's citizenship parents moving away (not necessarily emigrating, already if just moving to another community) had to report the birth of children back to the "Bürgerort" if the children were to inherit this citizenship. Also they had to fulfill their military duties - if that was not possible (e.g. if living overseas) financial compensation had to be paid. With several generations in between I would consider this extremely unlikely. Also I would expect that the local Swiss Embassy would have contacted your husband about his duties. Feel free to contact the Swiss Embassy - but don't hope for much.
"My second question has to do with what I'll just term as family group sheets, information on the entire family on one sheet (since it seems those had several names). My husband's family was from Canton Bern (Langenthal). I have been able to find the baptismal records back to his 3rd ggf, and all his siblings, by going page-by-page (in the Bern State Archive site), which told me when his 4th gg-parents were married and where they were from, and the name of his 5th ggf. However, then the records get really hard to read. So I was wondering if perhaps I've missed some records of family group sheets, somewhere?"
These "Bürgerregister" were introduced in most cantons during the first half of the 19th century. At least all citizens alive then would be recorded - dependent on the mood of the writer also one or even more earlier generations would be recorded retrospectively. Especially in larger cities such registers were started earlier - see e.g. Stemmatologia Sangallensis for the city of St.Gallen. So we have two questions: what does exist for any given community - and what of it is online? When checking church records on familysearch, look out for the term "Familienbuch" - this will often be such a register. No "Familienbuch" seems to exist for Langenthal, however.
Julius Billeter has compiled data collections for many Swiss families (not all digitized yet), incl. from canton Bern: at the moment not accessible from home in Switzerland, if you live in the USA, check yourself. His handwritten notes for several families have also been digitized and may even be accessed from home for Swiss residents: search the catalogue for "Author=Billeter" plus the family name you are looking for in keywords. Alternatively you may order copies from the Basel Genealogical Society - which is not going to be cheap for large families, however.
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