Swiss Genealogy Records and Documents

Your mother may have told you stories about her great-grandmother in Switzerland. These oral histories can help you start your research. Write down these memories.  

Ask family members about specific individuals and gather details including nicknames, places they lived, vital information (including birth, marriage, and death dates), occupations, and other important clues. Then start looking for the records or documentation needed to verify this information. 

A list of the Swiss genealogy records or documents you may need follows.  

• marriage certificates
• divorce records
• birth records
• death certificates
• military enlistments
• immigration or emigration records
• naturalization papers
• baptisms or christenings
• funeral services
• wills
• city directories
• grave stones or cemetery records
• guardianship document
• adoption papers
• probate papers
• census records
• property ownership records
• deeds and other land titles and records
• tax documents
• passports
• employment records
• voter registration papers
• Social Security 

A census is an official enumeration of the population in a particular area. In addition to counting the inhabitants of an area, the census generally collects other vital information, such as names, ages, citizenship  status, and ethnic background.  

In the United States, the first census was taken in 1790.  

The first Canadian census was conducted in 1851 and included Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia only. Click here  to access Canadian census records 

Swiss Civil Registration Record (Vital Records)  Birth and marriage documents can be very useful as they often provide maiden  names and the names of other relatives or witnesses. 

Birth registers: name, date and place of birth of child; names, residence and occupation of the parents. 

Marriage registers: names, ages, residences occupation of bride and groom; date and place of marriage, names, residence, occupation of parents; names of witnesses and person who performed the ceremony. 

Death registers: name of deceased, age, sometimes place of birth, date and place of death, occupation, name of surviving spouse, name and residence of informant, cause of death, sometimes names of parents, sometimes  names of children.

Church records (Kirchenbücher) are the most significant source of genealogical information for Switzerland. These are excellent sources for reasonably accurate information on names, dates and places of birth/baptism, marriage, and death/burial. Church  records are often called parish registers or church books. They include  records of births, baptisms, marriages, deaths, and burials. These records may include financial account books, fees for masses for the dead, lists of confirmations, penance register, communion lists, lists of members, and sometimes family registers.  

Church records are crucial for pre-1876 Swiss research. Since civil authorities in several areas of Switzerland generally did not begin registering vital statistics until the late 1800's, church records are often the only sources of family information before this time. 

With  the majority of Switzerland speaking German (Swiss German), most requests we receive concern the old documents that are hand written or printed in old German script.  

It's not easy to read. But you can begin with a basic understanding of German, genealogical terms and familiarity with German handwriting  Difficulty in reading a record may not result from a record keeper's poor penmanship but rather the use of a different style of handwriting.  

As most early German documents were written in some form of Gothic  handwriting or printing, familiarity with this style of writing will aid  in deciphering early German records. 

 A guide to German-Gothic writing.  

Here are links that contain French, German, Italian words with their English translations. 

French Word List:   

German Word List:  

Italian Word List: 

When you get to the point where you can recognize words or phrases, the following information is important:  

• Dates are written in day/month/year format: 17/3/1815 or year/month/day: 1815/3/17.
• An “m” or “n” with a straight line above it means the letter is doubled. Example: Johan with line over the “n” is Johann.
• Capitalization: In German, all nouns are written with an initial capital letter not just first/last names.
• Surnames can be underlined in the records.
• A baptism may be written upside down or sideways to indicate an illegitimate birth/baptism.
• If you see -in suffix added to a surname it signifies a female. Example Muller and Mullerin.

Taufen = baptisms. The baptism register contains the name of the child, the name and occupation of the father, the name of the mother including her maiden name, and names of the sponsors. If a child is born out of wedlock, the baptism information may be written upside down, or if the mother’s name comes before the father’s it indicates the child was born out of wedlock. 

Toten/Todten registers = death registers. Death registers may include the profession of the dead person, the cause of death, the date and place of death, and the date and place of the burial. This register might also be called the Begaben Register, meaning the burial register.  

Ehe Register = marriage register. This will list the married couple, sometimes their ages, their parent whether the parents are alive or dead, the father's occupation and towns of residence.          
Abbreviations in Registers: 

• b. is a Bürger or citizen of the town; it denotes the individual has special rights.
• ehel. = eheliche or married.
• evang/evg. = evangelische or evangelical/protestant.
• geb. or g. = geboren or born.
• ges. = gestorben or died.
• get. = getauft or baptised.
• J, M, T. = Jahre, Monaten, Tage or years, months and days.
• kath. = katholish or catholic.
• todg. = todgeboren or stillborn.
• u. = und or and.
• ux/uxor = spouse, generally the wife.
• Xber / Xbr. / Xbris etc. =September is 7ber, October is 8ber, and November is 9ber.

Measurements and Other Terms German|English 

Juchart Measure of land,used for acre. Originally the amount that could be ploughed in one day, which varied considerably from place to place. In 1838 it was fixed at 36 are (= 0.89 acre). The metric system became the only legally recognized system in 1877. 

Kopf (pl Köpf)|c 4 liters (around 6 Köpf to a bushel)  

Pfund (pre 1848)|c 500 grams  

Scheffel (pre 1848)|c 55 liters  

Zentner (pre 1848)|100 pounds  

Zwischendeck|Steerage  

Dorf|Village  

Gemeinde, Landgemeinde, Grossgemeinde|Town  

Grafschaft, Landkreis|County  

Ort|PlaceStadt|City  

Wohnort, Wohnstätte|Residence     

By the 16th century the slight miscalculations of the old Julian calendar had reached a point where the calendar months no longer corresponded with the solar year.  For that reason Pope Gregory XII proclaimed a new, improved calendar in Feb  1582; at that time the introduction involved jumping forward 10 days. 

   
The Gregorian calendar ran into resistance, especially in the Reformed areas. In Switzerland it was introduced slowly, over the course of 200 years. 

Appenzell                                               1724
Basel Land                                             1700
Basel Stadt                                             1700
Bern                                                        1700
Fribourg (Freiburg)                                 1584
Geneva (Genf)                                        1700
Glarus                                                     1724
Grisons (Graubünden)                            1812
Lucerne (Luzern)                                    1584
Neuchâtel                                               1700
St. Gallen (Sankt Gallen)                       1724
Schaffhausen                                         1700
Schwyz                                                  1584
Solothurn                                               1584
Thurgau                                                 1700
Unterwalden (Nidwalden/Obwalden)     1584
Uri                                                          1584
Valais (Wallis)                                        1622, 1655, 1656
Zug                                                        1584
Zürich                                                    1700

Britain and it's colony, the future United States, adopted the Gregorian calendar on 14th September 1752. 

Between 1793 and 1805 the French revolutionary calendar was in force in those areas of Geneva and the Bishopric of Basel which France had annexed.