General Glossary
To be able to effectively research Swiss records it is often essential to understand some basic expressions. In other cases names for administrative or military positions may need an explanation, or for professions.
In the context of translating a Council Meeting record from Chur in 1889 (https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/91988/council-minutes-chur-1889-transcription-translation-and-background-explanations) I had briefly explained the basic rules of Swiss citizenship, differences between "Bürgergemeinde / Bürgerort" and "politische Gemeinde", differences between "Zivilstandsregister", "Bürgerregister", "Familienbuch", "Familienregister".
Another discussion is on V.D.M. / Diakon / Pfarrer / Bischof (https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/92734/v-d-m-diakon-pfarrer-bischof).
There are others - but difficult to find ☹. To make this more efficient, I am planning to post such explanations here under "General Glossary" - and then just link to them.
All community members are welcome to post explanations here as well - or ask about expressions in need of an explanation.
I have started a separate discussion on specific Names of Diseases and Causes of Death (https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/126906/disease-names-and-causes-of-death). Related posts or questions should be place there.
On https://www.geneal-forum.com/phpbb/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=138 you'll find discussions on more than 200 more or less familiar terms - though mostly in German.
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Alt in connection with an administrative position, military grade or (less frequent) profession does not imply "old", but rather "retired / former" - see Alt Ehegaumer in https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/comment/438728/#Comment_438728 (where also the Ehegaumer is explained). An "old" Ehegaumer would be "der alte Ehegaumer".
This Alt could even be part of the title of a position held. On https://www.geneal-forum.com/phpbb/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=138&t=20467 you find a short description (in German) of the "constitution" of the city of St.Gallen during the 16th through 18th centuries. This includes Amtsbürgermeister (major in office), Altbürgermeister (past major), Reichsvogt (major elect). An individual usually held these positions for one year: The Amtsbürgermeister automatically became Altbürgermeister after his year in office, and Reichsvogt one year later. Very often the Reichsvogt was then re-elected as Amtsbürgermeister, … so an individual could have stayed in this 3-year circle several times in a row.
If you don't read German, I recommend you copy&paste the text to https://www.deepl.com/translator ... orders of magnitude better than Google - but will still have problems with outdated words - so if there are any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
The Reichsvogt - and other types of Vogt in general - could be dealt with later: please, speak up if you would be interested.
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Kirche is the German word for church. Like with most words, in dialects completely different words may be used for the same term … or just the pronunciation is/was different and even shows up in earlier records.
In Swiss German Kirche will often be pronounced Chilche or Chile. Pronunciation: https://www.auswandern-schweiz.net/schweizer-kultur/schweizerdeutsch-woerterbuch/28-schweizerdeutsch-a-c (scroll down to Chile and click on the icon) … and don't miss "Chuchichäschtli": in a famous (in Switzerland at least) comedy you have to be able to pronounce this correctly if you want to acquire Swiss citizenship 😉.
In combined terms / names "Kirch…" is often written "Kilch…". in the example on https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/comment/464239/#Comment_464239 you have a funny combination: "Kirchhöri Kilchdorf". Kilchdorf would be the parish of Kirchdorf - but in Kirchhöri we don't find the "Kil…".
Kirchhöri (Kilchhöri) is another word for Kirchgemeinde (parish). Note that Kirchgemeinde is mainly used in reformed regions, whilst Catholics use Pfarrei. Kirchgemeinde (if translated word by word) would be "church community". According to https://digital.idiotikon.ch/idtkn/id2.htm#!page/21577/mode/1up the "höri" in Kirchhöri originates from "Kilchherr", reduced to the meaning of "Kirchgänger" (churchgoer). Alternatively it could be derived from hören (to hear) - meaning a meeting were churchgoers met to discuss topics relevant to the parish.
"kirchgenössig" is a related term - derived from Kirchgenosse (attender of a given church). The term is used for inhabitants of smaller communities (without their own church), hamlets or separated farms: they would be "kirchgenössig nach …" in the sense they would be "attending church at …"
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Obmann: the question came up on https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/129667/question-about-meaning-of-occupation. The general translation would be chairman - which can encompass all sorts of duties.
Idiotikon (https://digital.idiotikon.ch/idtkn/id4.htm#!page/40245/mode/1up) mentions:
1. Arbitrator, often presiding an arbitral court or meeting.
2. President of a guild - not likely in a small community like Uttigen (no guilds).
3. Administrator of all secularized monastery estates since the Reformation, who had his office in the Obmannamt - again not likely for Uttigen.
So for Uttigen (1) is the most likely explanation, meaning likely similar to Ammann, presiding the communal administration and meetings.
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Kirchmayer: the question came up on https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/129681/help-translating-baptismal-record-from-bern-ins-switzerland.
Thode translates Kirchenmeyer with "administrator of church (farm) property".
Idiotikon (https://digital.idiotikon.ch/idtkn/id4.htm#!page/40011/mode/1up) offers two explanations for Chilchmeier (see https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/comment/464377/#Comment_464377 for Chile/Kirche):
1) Administrator of church property, however, usually only helping the person responsible for the tithe.
2) Principal of the parish community.
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duplicate deleted
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The profession Schiffmann / Schiffsmann was mentioned on https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/129787/kirchdorf-baptism-1781-kueenzi-occupation-place-names-surnames.
A closely related designation would be Schiffer, nowadays often named Steuermann. Thode translates Steuermann as boat pilot or helmsman. Schiffmann could also include the Fährmann = ferryman.
I would not translate Schiffmann (for someone living in Switzerland) with sailor, implying he would travel on a large sailing ship around the world. A Schiffmann in canton Bern will most likely transport goods with his boat on local rivers or lakes.
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What is a "zweite Witwe" (= second widow) ?
The question arose in the German Genealogy Group: https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/130034/need-help-with-these-two-burial-records
Another example is found in Ladenburg
Whilst both examples are from Germany, I felt it might be of interest here as well … just in case the expression shows up somewhere in Switzerland … in which case I would be most interested to read about it.
The topic was also discussed on https://www.geneal-forum.com/phpbb/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=32038 … and two potentially plausible explanations were described. The agreement was that (at least) two marriages were involved - question was whether the man or the woman had been married (at least) two times. This question could not be answered from the two examples above - more information about the biographies of the persons involved would have to be known.
The text on https://www.heinlenews.de/geschl03.htm answers the question:
Margareta Seebach was first married with Johann Adam Horolt. After his death she married Johann Friedrich Pfaff. When he died, she's become a widow for the second time. So when she married a third time (Johann Ludwig Bertulius) she was "die erste Witwe des Pfarrers Johann Adam Horold aus Michelbach und die zweite Witwe des Pfarrers Johann Friedrich Pfaff".
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The Ammann was already mentioned in the context of Obmann (https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/comment/466800/#Comment_466800). A more detailed description may be found on https://digital.idiotikon.ch/idtkn/id4.htm#!page/40245/mode/1up (right column, bottom).
You cannot copy&paste from the Idiotikon full text - and with all the abbreviations and different scripts I doubt https://www.deepl.com/translator (or any other translator) would be able to provide a reasonable translation anyway.
What you can do: actually search for an expression - you'll then get a list of hits. If you click on an entry in the list, a summary pops up - and this you can copy&paste - and have it translated. That's what I did:
1) Official, community leader, "Dorf-Schulze" (village mayor); also leader of a village ("Dorf-Ammann", "Gemeinds-Ammann"); transferred: leader of the so-called boys' court, that is the court of adult boys.
2) Shortened instead of "Land-Ammann", "Tal-Ammann"; the first head of the formerly sovereign high courts in Graubünden; in Domleschg "Landvogt", in the Italian valleys "podestà"; head of the country in the cantons with "Landsgemeinden" (annual voter's assembly).
3) Representative of the landlord, for example of a monastery or foundation, to receive the land rents and fees, sometimes also to administer the lower courts; as a rule, "Ammann" was also the name of the representative and administrator of the jurisdiction located in the "Vogtei" (bailiwick), the old "Zentgrafschaft" (court district), from which the office of "Landammann" developed.
4) Family name.
In many cases it will be required or at least result in an improved translation to complete all the abbreviations - see https://www.idiotikon.ch/woerterbuch/abk/allg.
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