Sources for genealogical research in Switzerland
There are already threads on sources for cantons
Appenzell-Ausserrhoden: https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/92336/church-records-in-canton-appenzell-ausserrhoden
Bern: https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/92218/church-records-in-canton-bern
Information on other sources will be given here - and discussions / questions regarding sources are invited.
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Chorgerichtsmanuale in canton Bern
A text on Moral Courts in Switzerland is planned for the discussion on General Comments (https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/127171/general-comments). In canton Bern these courts were named "Chorgericht" and their proceedings "Chorgerichtsmanuale": these give interesting insights on all sorts of family issues and can help to answer questions emerging from church records, like baptismal, marriage or death records. These have been digitized and can be ordered from Genealogisch-Heraldische Gesellschaft Bern - GHGB (http://ghgb.ch/home.html): see the list of communities (http://ghgb.ch/chorgerichtsmanuale-uebersicht.html) for which these minutes are available.
Fritz Bieri from GHGB was kind enough to supply me with a few pages (as examples) in connection with the discussion concerning Hans Lÿb and Elsbeth Binggeli (see https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/128461/zbinden-family). The two relevant sections are transliterated and translated here. Below are the full pages as examples what to expect … and for you to practice your reading 😉.
It is difficult to translate these old texts word by word. The following is therefore a "free" translation, hopefully correctly conveying the content:
1683
Friday June 29
President [of the Chorgericht] Alt Statthalter [former governor] Glaus, Assessor [legal assistant] Hans Jacob Wolff predicant [preacher], Seckelmeister [treasurer] Zand, Jacob Guggisperg, Christian Nidegger.
1. Elsi Binggeli, the innkeeper's sister, claims that Hans Lyb has promised to marry her; to prove this she shows the 11 Batzen [a coin] he had given her as confirmation. They had cohabitation since "jahr und tag" [for yonks].
Hans Lyb denies both, the promise of marriage and the cohabitation.
The Beyelerin [Ms. Beyeler] has come forward that he had mentioned that he didn't want to cheat, and that they had been seen having cohabitation.
No conclusion or decision is recorded (see below).
1683 [Sep. 21]
10. Hans Lyb and his wife Elsi Binggeli have had cohabitation for yonks. However, he had denied this during the previous session.
For this he was fined 10 Schilling [a coin]; they were spared a higher fine, as they had been fined already previously.
The last sentence might be an indication that the case had also been examined at the Chorgericht in Bern (the superior instance) and the fine had been imposed by them. So the conclusion on June 29 may have been to forward the case to Bern.
See https://www.numisbern.ch/download/pictures/5f/w28e3ut0553jof0mnbxy1w9q9u16ph/muenzsysteme.pdf for historic coins in canton Bern.
Chorgerichtsmanual Guggisberg, 1682-1711, pages 16, 17, 18, 19, 24, 25 (all 1683):
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You are now invited to check a general, though short treatise on moral courts in Switzerland: https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/comment/466580/#Comment_466580
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The church records of Walterswil, canton Bern, prior to 1875, have been transcribed by Christof Meissburger. These transcriptions can be downloaded (free) from https://www.geneal-forum.com/phpbb/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=31419#p118707. To be able to access the files one has to be registered with the forum (which is free and without any obligation).
I have further come across indices (Excel) of the death register Sigriswil BE 1748-1875 (https://zurfernsicht.ch/media/files/Sigriswil_Totenregister_1748-1875_2021-12-06.pdf) and the death register Spiez BE 1725-1834 (https://zurfernsicht.ch/docu/Totenrodel_Spiez.pdf).
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Canton Bern church records on the canton Bern State Archive website
The church records of canton Bern on familysearch may only be viewed in Family History Centres, not from home. An alternative for people without a nearby FHC are the records held on the website of the canton Bern State Archive, which are freely available. Whilst based on the same films, they were digitized some 15 years earlier - resulting in lower image quality.
Start on http://www.query.sta.be.ch/archivplansuche.aspx?ID=37
Whilst the following screenshots were taken with German as language setting, also English or French may be selected (for titles and tabs only). Due to the rather small script this possibility is easily missed. Depending on where you live, however, your preferred lanugage may automatically have been chosen.
Note as well that the exact display (icon symbols or positions of indications) may vary, depending on the browser used.
Click on the [+] at "Kirchenbücher", than on the [+] at the parish you are looking for.
Then double-click on the book (note: all books are separate, unlike familysearch files with often several books on a single "film").
To open a file, click on the link for the pdf. Note the reference signature (in the example "K Aarwangen 5"). If you want to go back to the list of books available for this parish, click on "Im Archivplan lokalisieren" (Localize in archive plan / Localiser dans le plan d'archivage).
The record is available as pdf - may take a while to load completely - but if you want to research the book a lot, it might be worth downloading it to your hard disk.
The sidebar can be toggled on/off with the "book icon" top left.
If you have a problem reading a given entry, start a new request for reading help in the Switzerland Group. To help keeping track, you are kindly asked to stick to the recommended structure for the discussion title (see https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/129680/what-title-would-be-best-for-postings). Include a screenshot of the entry in question and make sure you also give the reference signature (in the above example "K Aarwangen 5" - note that this is also shown on the bottom of each pdf page) plus the pdf page number (202 in the example) - this helps to find the correct page online, in case text passages or words / characters need to be compared with other entries on the page, so the full page needs to be viewed.
Should you have any questions about these records, or to the navigation on this website, you are invited to ask them there: https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/130547/canton-bern-church-records-on-the-canton-bern-state-archive-website.
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Bevölkerungsverzeichnisse (population registers) aka Haushaltungsrodel (household registers) are a kind of "extended census data". Especially in (what is today) canton Zürich and regions administered from Zürich (parts of the St.Gallen Rhine Valley and Thurgau) they are an important source of information, occasionally covering time periods for which (in some parishes) no church records have survived. The earliest such record is from 1633, the most recent one from 1806. The background is that the local priest had to report (to the administration in Zürich) at regular intervals about the people in his parish and also their behaviour.
An example of an early record from Hombrechtikon (1634) has been posted on https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/comment/469662/#Comment_469662. This example contains only the basic data. As usual the register is sorted by farm or hamlet, first giving the husband's name and profession, the age is occasionally missing. This is followed by the names and (usually) ages of wife and children. For persons not originally from Hombrechtikon their origin is given. For several families is stated "können allein bätten" = can pray on their own, i.e. they know the prayers - or - "kann viel im Cathech[ismus]", i.e. is familiar with the catechism - which might be an indication that the family owned the book - but this was not necessarily the case.
Later the records became more detailed - see this example from Uster from 1764/68 (the registers were not always compiled within a single year). Excuse the poor quality - the example is a "screenshot", taken "in the good old times" with a camera off the screen of an analogue film reader.
On the left side we first have "Elteren" (parents) and then "Kinder von einer vorigen Ehe" as well as "Kinder aus dermahliger Ehe" (childen from the father's first an second marriage). Note that here the dates of birth are given. In front of the names are notes about the children's religious education. But there is more:
"Bücher" lists the books in the household, like the "Alte Froschauer Bibel" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z%C3%BCrich_Bible) or several issues "Bättbuch" (prayer book).
"Beschaffenheit" is a sort of character reference: "Haben nichts zu klagen" (there is nothing to complain about) … "haben 2 Wäbstuhl" (have 2 weaving looms). So these sources may give you some insight into how your ancestors lived.
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Sources for genealogical research in canton Zürich
Church records of canton Zürich have been filmed by familysearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/results?count=20&placeId=162215&query=%2Bplace%3A%22Switzerland%2C%20Z%C3%BCrich%22 … click on "Places within Switzerland, Zürich") - may be viewed at Family History Centres only, though.
Church records of the city of Zürich have more recently been digitized by the Zürich City Archive: https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/prd/de/index/stadtarchiv/bestaende/pfarrbuecher.html. With modern technology these records are in colour with better image quality - and can be viewed free from home. In addition to the records of the "old" city, records of the incorporated villages 1893 (https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/prd/de/index/stadtarchiv/bestaende/pfarrbuecher/PfarrbuecherRefKirchen-ErsteEingemeindung-1893.html) and 1934 (https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/prd/de/index/stadtarchiv/bestaende/pfarrbuecher/PfarrbuecherRefKirche-ZweiteEingemeindung1934.html) are included.
The Marriage Register of canton Zürich is an index to all marriages in the canton for the time period 1524-1800 (many parishes start later than 1524 for various reasons): https://www.archives-quickaccess.ch/search/stazh/edb. The index uses standardised spellings - when you start typing the name, possible spellings beginning that way are offered. In the list of results one can click on individual persons to get full detail (incl. an excerpt of any comments - very helpful for researchers not familiar with the script in the original records). To view the original records one has to consult the above described platforms.
Bevölkerungsverzeichnis / Haushaltungsrodel are "extended census data" from early 17th to end of 18th century. On https://suche.staatsarchiv.djiktzh.ch/archivplansuche.aspx?ID=308230 these records are listed (together with the standard church and other records) for each parish: they are not available online, though - one has to visit the Zürich State Archive. Examples are shown on https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/comment/470077/#Comment_470077 and https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/comment/469662/#Comment_469662.
Promptuarium Genealogicum is a collection of family sheets of some 250 citizen families of the city of Zürich, compiled by Carl Keller-Escher, and available online: easiest access is via https://www.geneal-forum.com/phpbb/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=31836#p117547 with direct links to all volumes. In a citizens science project the text is being transcribed: work in progress - but you might be lucky - or could contribute 😉.
Printed Citizens' Registers and address books of the city of Zürich come in useful for researching 19/20th century: https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Adressbücher#Zürich.
Of course, there are many more sources for more extensive research: feel free to mention them here and report about your experience.
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Chorgerichtsmanuale in canton Bern (part 2)
Following up on https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/comment/466326/#Comment_466326 (which includes background information) - on https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/146071/diemtigen-chorgericht-1870-71-kunz-widmer-identify-father 3 pages from the Chorgericht Diemtigen can be viewed (partially transliterated and translated).
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Bürgerregister (Burgerrodel) and Zivilstandsregister
The Zivilstandsregister (the present day civil registry system) was established in 1876 by federal law, i.e. uniformly for all of Switzerland. At the beginning the three most relevant (for genealogy) registers were births, marriages and deaths.
There are two types: A-Register and B-Register. All events in a given community had to be documented in the A-Register. If the person(s) concerned were not citizens of the community, the event had to be reported to the Bürgerort/Heimatort (place of citizenship) - where the event was then documented in the B-Register as well. This emphasises how important the Bürgerort is for research in Switzerland - at least for the time after 1876 (often much earlier) you'll get the information if you know the Bürgerort - irrespective of place of birth, …
These registers are (usually) not available online - but the registers of Lichtensteig SG for 1890-1900 were published "by accident" (I assume). On https://www.geneal-forum.com/phpbb/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=31883 you'll find links to typical examples for the Würth family of Lichtensteig. This is just to give you an idea how these registers look - to my knowledge no other examples are online (for the German speaking part of Switzerland).
In 1929 the Familienregister was added to the type of registers. Here we don't have documentation of a single event - instead all events relating to a given family (husband and wife plus children) are combined in a sort of "family sheet" - not online either.
However, similar registers (Bürgerregister or Burgerrodel) were established during the 1830ies in most cantons - and usually continued for quite a while after 1929. In some cantons (e.g. Thurgau) this duty was left to the church - these registers are therefore often found amongst the church records (many of which are available on familysearch). In other cantons (e.g. St.Gallen) the communities had to keep these registers. Canton St.Gallen has digitized the Bürgerregister and published the older ones online. On https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/92325/church-records-and-other-records-in-canton-st-gallen the most comfortable way to search for available church records as well as Bürgerregister at the same time has been described. So even if you are not researching in canton St.Gallen, you'll get an impression what to expect in other cantons as well. Again - the Bürgerort is the place to know.
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We are all aware of the fact that with secondary/tertiary sources, especially information in online databases, one has to be careful: depending on the type of source the risk of incorrect information is rather high; information should be checked with primary sources, whenever possible. BUT: How accurate are primary sources (church records, citizens' registers, …)?
On https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/147389/belp-be-marriage-or-proclamation-1720-singer-balsiger-brides-origin we have a discrepancy in the marriage date for Christen Singer and Elsbeth Balsiger. The marriage took place in Kirchdorf on 18.01.1720: https://www.query.sta.be.ch/Dateien/28/D143426.pdf#page=95 (first entry on the right). In Belp (the bride's home parish) the date is given as 12.01.1720: https://www.query.sta.be.ch/Dateien/18/D94137.pdf#page=193 (first entry on the right). The wording is "Zu Kilchdorf eingesegnet worden …": this is the usual wording for "were married".
Remarkable is the fact that "eingesegnet worden" is used only for some of the entries - and always connected to marriages in other parishes … does that have an implication?
On the same page further down we have under the date 16.02.1720 "Zu Dießbach eingesegnet worden Niclaus Schneider von Dießbach und Maria Kilcher von Noflen den 3. Maÿ". So here (and also with other entries) a date for the actual marriage is given - and can be confirmed on https://www.query.sta.be.ch/Dateien/19/D96039.pdf#page=29. In the case of Singer&Balsiger this date is missing - either the pastor didn't know it, or just forgot to write it down. So in this case we don't have an incorrect entry, but missing information - which can easily lead to incorrect interpretation. The date (12.01.1720) could be the date of a proclamation - or just of some sort of communication.
This is just one example to show that even with primary sources (like church records) one has to be careful. All who can cope with German are invited to read about a few more examples plus a discussion of this issue on https://www.geneal-forum.com/phpbb/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=32555.
Technical comment: the links above should bring you to the correct pdf-page. Unfortunately not all browsers interpret this correctly: should you end u on the first page instead, manually scroll down to the page mentioned in the URL.
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In a contribution above I had described Haushaltsrodel und Bevölkerungsverzeichnisse as synonyms for some sort of census data: that was owed to the fact that in different cantons different expressions were used for similar documents.
In canton Zürich, however, these can be differentiated:
Haushaltungsrodel were started in most parishes mid-18th century, usually with data reaching back to the late 17th century. They were often updated over some time span - the year of "starting" the book needs therefore to be taken with some caution. These documents have been filmed together with the "standard" church records (baptisms, marriages, deaths) and are easily found in the catalogue amongst these other church records.
Bevölkerungsverzeichnisse were started in most parishes ruled by the church of Zürich (which includes also selected parishes in cantons St.Gallen and Thurgau) in 1633/34 (with data back to the late 16th century) and stop in most parishes in 1759 (i.e. with some overlap to the Haushaltungsrodel). There are two main differences:
1) Bevölkerungsverzeichnisse describe the status at a given time (close to the year mentioned for the book - although it may have taken a couple of years to compile all this information). Bevölkerungsverzeichnisse were repeated at irregular, but short intervals: as a consequence the same family may show up in different volumes.
2) Bevölkerungsverzeichnisse were not filmed together with the church records. They were filmed separately - and are not easily found by just searching the catalogue. There is a parish index on https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS8L-B9R4-K?cat=1174729: you have to search for the film number given there. Also note the Item / Vol. / Page numbers … will be necessary to find a specific parish/year on the film. The page numbers seem not to be very reliable - you may have to search around this number.
On https://www.geneal-forum.com/phpbb/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=32750#p123371 you will find examples from Zürich-Witikon, relating to the Bertschinger family, for 1633 until 1759. Reading the transcriptions is free, to view the original records one has to be registered with the forum (which is free and without any obligation).
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Canton Bern church records after 1875 on CD
I have a questions about the CD's. For the church records for Canton Bern, town of Diemtigen (where my ancestors are from), it states that the CD contains the following (among other listings):
Taufrodel 1891-1913, Eherodel 1876-1923, and Beerdigungsrodel 1876-1977.
My questions:
- I thought that records were not available after 1876.
- How do I purchase these CDs?
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Canton Bern church records after 1875 on CD
There are (were) two different sets of CDs with church records from canton Bern:
1) Records before 1875 had been published by Picton Press: these CDs are no longer available - instead these files can be viewed online (http://www.query.sta.be.ch/archivplansuche.aspx?ID=37). These are also available from familysearch - same film, but more recently digitized and often of better image quality. You have to visit a Family History Centre, though.
2) The end date 1875 was decided when the records were filmed in the 1970ies. Free access to baptismal registers is generally restricted to registers more than 100 years old (but Bern has their own rules 🙄). The Bern Genealogical Society has digitized several of these more recent books - and these CDs can be ordered from them - see https://ghgb.ch/angebot-kirchenbuecher-c-d.html and https://ghgb.ch/angebot-kirchenbuecher.html. The Diemtigen CD is chf 50 plus chf 8 postage (abroad): contact Fritz Bieri if interested.
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Thank you for sharing your knowledge. It looks like I have found a new place to spend some of my money!
Is there a similar website for the canton of Solothurn where CDs can be purchased? My grandmother was born in Langendorf, Solothurn, in the year 1884.
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Is there a similar website for the canton of Solothurn where CDs can be purchased?
Not as far as I know.
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