Researching records in Someo, Ticino, Switzerland
I need help please. I have been told that the films have been digitized, but can't be viewed. My question is why could I have ordered the films when we could rent them and could have viewed them at the FHC? Why now are they not available to view? There are 6 families that are waiting to have access to records that are over 150 years old, so privacy should not be an issue. Is there a way to review the contract to see if it can be modified or if there is a timeline? We are trying to complete our family histories and have no documents from Someo. Please review my request and let me know if there is any way to do our research. I understand that there may be an issue with online access, but we should be able to access the records from our FHC. There is no way we can go to Utah as we are all elderly and live in California and Australia. Thanks for any help or consideration of our request. Ancestry does not have Switzerland listed.
Thank you for your help with this - we are extremely frustrated.
Best Answer
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To clarify, I am not a FamilySearch staff member, just a regular user of FamilySearch.
FamilySearch never publicly discusses details about their contracts with record custodians. The only way to find out is to contact the custodian, which in this case will be an arm of the Catholic church- either the parish or diocese. Ultimately, these records are private property, and their owner has the sole power to decide whether the public can view them.
The Catholic Church officially does not allow their records to be published by FamilySearch. While this rule is frequently ignored- (there's probably more than 100 million Catholic records on FamilySearch), there are some parishes and dioceses that enforce it.
It's possible that some FHCs still have a microfilm copy of these records, but I doubt that are many if any. There's no database showing which FHCs hold which microfilms, so you'll have to ring each FHC and ask.
As I mentioned earlier, the FHL Lookup Service may be helpful. If you have a name and approximate date, they will check the records and send the details of anything they find. Depending on the contract, they may or may not be able to send you a copy of the original records. They cannot help with complex or time-consuming enquiries.
Have a read of this Wiki Article: https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Switzerland_Church_Records, especially the section "Locating the Records" and the pages for each Canton. If the records are online at another website there's a strong probability the Wiki will mention it somewhere.
I wish you all the best for your search.
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This is a continuation of https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/123047/digitizing-records-for-someo-ticino-switzerland#latest
(@dennisglennclarke1 , next time it would be better to continue the discussion under the same thread rather than starting a new one)
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