About The Glarus Family Tree Project (the Methodology of Research Work)

 

For many years, I run the family research on the Glarus families as my hobby. About five years ago I have started an ambitious project which will show the family links between the about 200 original families from Glarus. Starting point of my family research is always the outstanding genealogical oeuvre of Johann Jakob Kubly-Müller. In more than 30 years of work (1893-1923) Kubly-Müller created this unique reference book. It comprises a total of 36 large and small volumes as well as the registry on the older Glarus genealogy and an alphabetical index. Built on the entire stock of the parish books of the Canton of Glarus and supplemented by historical directories, documents and material from public and private archives, Kubly Müller's monumental book lists all Glarus families from the 15th century to the present in their sequence and links in a clean and readable font.

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After the death of Johann Jakob Kubly-Müller and the sale of the work to the canton, the respective state archivists or librarians or their employees seem to have updated the births, deaths and marriages on the basis of the official notifications. My research has shown that at least the deaths were updated until 2010. Also on the basis of the various handwritings, one can recognise the persons who made the additions at least on the basis of this characteristic:

 

1893 - 1923     Johann Jakob Kubly-Müller

1923 - 1932     Hans Schiesser (national archivist, national librarian and interrogator)

1932 - 1965     Dr. phil. Jakob Winteler (National Archivist)

1965 - 2005     Josef Müller (Secretary of the National Library, National Librarian)

1987 - 2017     Erika Kamm-Weber (Genealogy, only partial updating of the Kubly-Müller records and on an external database)

2017 -              Lara Caetano (Genealogy, no updating of the Kubly-Müller records any more)

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Whenever possible, I have included the Kubly-Müller reference in The Glarus Family Tree. In addition, I also use information which I find on relevant websites (e.g. Ancestry.com, Finde A Grave etc). Since such information has to be accepted with some reservation, I try whenever possible to verify the information gathered from the internet.

 

In Switzerland, I mainly use the work of Kubly-Müller and the corresponding church records for my research work. In order to keep the Glarus Family Tree up to date, I have started to analyze the current obituaries on www.todesanzeigenportal.ch as well as the obituaries published in the Official Gazette of the Canton of Glarus until 2017. The research work is being continued on an ongoing basis and the goal is to close the gap that arose in the Kubly-Müller work as a result of the official tracking work stopped about 2010. Currently, the current period back to 2010 is covered by my own research. 

 

I publish my results on various websites, one is my own site on Geneanet, another on is Geneal-Tree, a German website and the third one is the Ancestry which is subject to a fee (links see below). Through these websites, I get access to interested genealogists with whom I like to share further available information and so in return receive additional information which will support my project. Family history is not only to collect dates of birth, marriage and death. Family history is interesting and accessible only by individual stories and photos. Therefore, whenever possible I incorporate photographs and historical facts in the Pedigrees. I get most of these documents by the ever-widening circle of interested hobby genealogists. Therefore, any additional information on missing family members is always highly welcome.

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The Glarus Family Tree with more than 286'000 individuals on

 

• Geneal-Tree (Free / German / living people are disabled and can only be viewed with an access code) - Update every new 5'000 individuals

• MyHeritage (Free / German and English / living people are disabled and can only be viewed with an access code) - Update every new 5'000 individuals

• Geneanet (Free / German, English and French / living people are disabled and can only be viewed with an access code) - Update every new 5'000 individuals

• Ancestry (with cost / German and English / living people are disabled and can only be viewed with special granted access) / Update every new 5'000 individuals

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With a voluntary donation everyone can contribute to the financing of The Glarus Family Tree project. These donations are used, in order to settle the costs of Web space, Webhosting and domain. The webmaster of this website expresses his thanks for your donation.

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Please use the following link

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Family Research In Switzerland

 

Civil Status: Civil status documents (birth, marriage, divorce, death) have only been recorded by Swiss authorities since 1876. Prior to this, civil status was recorded by the Roman Catholic and Protestant (Calvinist and Zwingli) churches. You do want to discover which religion an emigrant belonged in Switzerland.  Records would be held in a Catholic or a Protestant church prior to 1876. It is rare for people to change religion upon emigration, so if in doubt, it can be assumed that the religion practiced overseas is the same as in Switzerland. 

 

Place of Origin: Where is the town of origin. This refers to city, small town or commune/community where civil documents are kept. Town is known as the "Bürgerort”. This place of origin is handed down from father to child, and to the wife upon marriage. Until recently, a woman would acquire the place of origin from her husband and lose her own.  

 

Documents concerning changes in civil status are recorded in the the place of origin, regardless of the location where the event actually took place. This has been true since 1876, although in some cases since the end of the 17th century.  

 

There is however one important exception: the places of origin registers only those documents which are sent to them. In past centuries when a person emigrated it was very seldom that changes in civil status were reported back to Switzerland and therefore the family registers were not kept up to date.

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Switzerland’s data protection regulations have made finding living relatives more complicated. The Federal Civil Registry Ordinance requires a cantonal research  authorization, which is subject to a fee which is set by the Canton. The Swiss law on data protection has been translated into English: Federal Act on Data Protection 235.1

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Family Research In Glarus

 

Data from persons born before 1918 or dead since 1988 can be viewed without authorization. For access to data of persons who are younger than 100 years or not yet 30 years dead, an approval from the cantonal civil registry office is needed. A respective application has to be sent in advance to marianna.weber@gl.chwith the reasoning of such an inspection. The permit will be normally given without any problem if you want to do research about your own family. If you need support, cklick here.

 

The Kubly-Müller volumes with all the family information are archived in the Landesarchiv in Glarus.

 

Landesarchiv des Kantons Glarus

Gerichtshausstrasse 25

8750 Glarus

 

Before you are going there you must ask for permission resp. reserve a desk:

 

Lara Caetano

Wappen und Genealogie

Phone: +41-55 646 63 11

lara.caetano@gl.ch  or  landesarchiv@gl.ch

 

Opening hours:

Wednesday until Friday from 8am to 12pm and 1.30am to 5pm, on Thursday until 5.30pm

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Plan for enough time for your research. It may take 5 minutes or it may take several hours. I prepared a User Guide On How To Read The Kubly-Müller Records.

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Here the official new User Guide prepared by the Landesarchiv in Glarus

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The Church Books in Glarus

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The introduction of church books in Glarus happened relatively late, that is nearly 100 years after the appearance of the oldest church books in Switzerland (in Pruntrut 1481). It is true that the Council of Trient of 1563 had passed resolutions on the introduction of church registers, but in very markedly Catholic communities like Näfels they did not begin until 1655, while, for example, the Protestant community of Mollis was the first to have these registers in the Canton from 1570 onwards. The use of the church registers will have to be clear on the basis of which church congregations existed at which time and where their inhabitants belowent to church before. The community of Bilten belonged until 1607 to Niederurnen, Netstal until 1699 (Protestant) resp. 1708 (Catholic) to Glarus, as well as Mitlödi before 1725, while Luchsingen belonged until 1753 partly to Betschwanden and partly to Schwanden. Mühlehorn belonged until 1760 to Obstalden and Ennenda before 1774 to Glarus. Oberurnen, which was raised as the last church before the introduction of the civilian registers in 1868 to its own church community, had until then belonged to the parish of Näfels.

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The church records before 1876 leave much to be desired, as the control of the organs of the church committee and the synod had little effect. Some church books are also loose and torn in the cover and binding, in many cases leaves are missing from the back and front and have been lost through carelessness and indifference. Remarkably, the books of the Sernftal are almost the best kept. They contain, for example, all those who died of the plague in the years 1611, 1625 and 1626, while in all the other church books of the canton there is a complete lack of records of those who died of the plague; only in the marriage books is there occasionally a corresponding entry. To the credit of the parish priests, however, it must be mentioned that he must have been very strict during the plague. In addition, most clergymen had the inglorious habit of not entering children who died under the age of 16, i.e. before confirmation, in the registers of the dead at all. Some registrars only mentioned at the end of the year that so and so many people had died, including so and so many children, but the names of the children were missing. The infant mortality rate was, by the way, alarmingly high in view of the usually abundant supply of children, with infantile leprosy (variola) and dissenteria (dysentery) having a major influence. The highest infant mortality rate was in 1801, a truly terrible year for the youth of the canton of Glarus, in which over 2000 children died of smallpox alone. 

 

The parish priests of earlier times did not always bear honourable witness to the keeping of registers entrusted to them and, above all, the mutual exchange and reporting of civil status incidents to the home parishes was in a bad way. The clergy of both denominations were not subject to any control and they would not have tolerated any superintendence. They possessed an unconditional blind trust in this regard, which was by no means always appropriate. The Civil Status and Marriage Act of 1876, however, brought about a thorough change in these abuses. 

 

A praiseworthy exception from the 17th century is Pastor Johannes Marti von Glarusl, pastor in Betschwanden from 1692-1702, who, when he took office in 1692, freely recorded a register of the population in the entire parish of Betschwanden and entered each family with all its members, their names and dates of birth in a booklet with a beautiful leather cover. His successor, Pastor Johann Heinrich Zwicki from Mollis and Glarus, was the exact opposite, leaving behind a terrible disorder in Betschwanden and later also in Netstal, not to mention Pastor Leonhardi from Filisur, who entered nothing at all in the parish register during his entire term of office from 1809 - 1829. And like him, the parish priest Levin Feldmann in Schwanden also did not make any entries from 1729-1735.

 

It is also very regrettable that the books of the Kerenzerberg, which according to credible reports were kept very carefully and in which a parish priest is said to have inscribed himself as having died of the plague, were destroyed by the fire of the parsonage in Obstalden on 4 March 1834. The parish priest at the time, Jakob Menzi, was startled by the fire in the house, and when this was done, it was no longer possible to save the parish registers. An irreplaceable loss that is to be greatly regretted. Although the community of Kerenzen later had a makeshift register of citizens compiled again, going back to a shorter period of time, it was no longer possible to fall back on the earlier periods. Unfortunately, these church records have been destroyed for all time. Niederurnen also lost its parish registers in a fire in the 17th century and the records from that time are therefore also incomplete, although attempts were made to at least collect the names of the male deceased, which was partially successful. Fortunately, the Protestant books of Glarus were preserved during the fire of Glarus. Pastor Johann Jakob Streiff had the presence of mind during the fire to first throw the books from the already burning rectory down into the garden, where they could be found and salvaged completely intact the following morning, protected by a corner of the wall. Unfortunately, a large part of the Catholic parish books burnt and the entries only go back to 1722, while nothing is known about the fate of the earlier books of the Catholics of Glarus, Netstal, Ennenda and Mitlödi. In addition, the oldest church book of the parish of Elm was burnt in 1861. 

 

A source that is still important for the genealogy of the canton of Glarus is the Zurich lucky draw. In 1504, a large international shooting competition was held in the city of Zurich. A so-called "Glückshafen", a kind of lottery, was connected with this shooting competition, in which considerable lucky tickets could be won for a small deposit. A precise register was kept of these entries, which contained between 500 and 600 names from Glarus. This register is all the more valuable because the church records in the canton of Glarus, as shown, do not go back to this time. For a list of the names appearing in it, see Johann Jakob Kubly-Müller, Die Glarner am grossen internationalen Freischiessen im Jahre 1504 zu Zürich und ihre Beteiligung am sogenannten Glückshafen, in: Jahrbuch des Historischen Vereins des Kantons Glarus, Band 36 (1910), 64ff.

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First Church Records by Church Communities 

B: Birth and Baptism records

M: Marriage records

D: Death records

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Betschwanden: B: 1598-1875 / M: 1606-1875 / D: 1771-1875

Bilten: belonged before to Niederurnen / B: 1607-1875 / M: 1607-1875 / D: 1607-1875

Braunwald: belonged to Betschwanden and Linthal

Diesbach: belonged to Betschwanden

Elm: B: 1595-1875 / M: 1595-1875 / D: 1595-1875

Engi: belonged before to Matt / B: 1801-1875 / M: 1801-1875 / D: 1801-1875

Ennenda: belonged before to Glarus / B: 1775-1875 / M: 1775-1875 / D: 1775-1875

Filzbach: belonged to Kerenzen (Obstalden)

Glarus Protestant: B: 1598-1875 / M: 1598-1875 / D: 1620-1875

Glarus Catholic: B: 1800-1875 / M: 1800-1875 / D: 1800-1875

Hätzingen: belonged to Betschwanden

Haslen: belonged before to Schwanden / B: 1801-1875 

Kerenzen (Obstalden): B: 1834-1875 / M: 1834-1875 / D: 1834-1875 (reconstruction of earlier years based on old church protocols)

Leuggelbach: belonged to Schwanden

Linthal Protestant: B: 1601-1875 / M: 1601-1875 / D: 1640-1875

Linthal Catholic: B: 1654-1875 / M: 1654-1875 / D: 1654-1875

Luchsingen: belonged before partly to Betschwanden and partly to Schwanden / B: 1752-1875 / M: 1752-1875 / D: 1752-1875

Matt: B: 1595-1875 / E: 1595-1875 / D: 1595-1875

Mitlödi: belonged before to Glarus / B: 1725-1875 / M: 1725-1875 / D: 1725-1875

Mollis: B: 1571-1875 / M: 1627-1875 / D: 1617-1875

Mühlehorn: belonged before to Kerenzen (Obstalden) / B: 1761-1875 / M: 1761-1875 / D: 1761-1875

Näfels: B: 1655-1875 / M: 1655-1875 / D: 1655-1875

Netstal Protestant: belonged before to Glarus / B: 1698-1875 / M: 1698-1875 / D: 1698-1875

Netstal Catholic: belonged before to Glarus / B: 1861-1875 / D: 1861-1875 

Nidfurn: belonged to Schwanden

Niederurnen: B: 1680-1875 / M: 1680-1875 / D: 1680-1875

Oberurnen: belonged before to Näfels / B: 1868-1875 / M: 1868-1875 / D: 1868-1875

Riedern: belonged to Glarus

Rüti: belonged before to Betschwanden / B: 1809-1875 

Schwändi: belonged before to Schwanden / B: 1801-1875

Schwanden: B: 1611-1875 / M: 1611-1875 / D: 1662-1875

Sool: belonged before to Schwanden / B: 1750-1875 / M: 1750-1875 / D: 1750-1875

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Swiss Cemetery Information

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In North America, cemeteries can be an important resource for gathering genealogical information. Tombstone inscriptions and plot placemens can lead to new information about your ancestors. Find a Grave is a website which helps you to find tombstones all over the world.

 

You won’t find that resource in Switzerland.  Very few graves are older than 25 years. Switzerland is a very small country with limited land availability.  Therefore, it is important to know that grave sites are rented for 25 years. After that, a new headstone will go up for 25 years.

 

Families can purchase space, or rent it on a very long-term basis. You might also find a headstone of a pastor or a citizen of prominence that could date back more than 40 years. But for most, once the grave is dug up, the headstone is returned to the family or recycled.

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What happens now when the term of the graves expires? 

 

In addition to the official announcement and posting at the cemetery, the communities also inform the relatives a few months in advance about the impending grave clearance. An extension of the grave dormancy period is not possible for row graves, but it is possible for family graves or other rental graves. However, in these cases the grave site is also subject to a fee. 

 

The clearing is always done in blocks. Therefore it can happen that some graves exist exactly as long as the legal term allows, others a little longer - depending on the difference of the burial date between the first and last grave of the field.

 

In the case of grave dissolution, the grave is only cleared above ground. All this clearing work only goes 15 to 20 centimetres deep, i.e. far above the buried urns and coffins. Then fresh humus is added at the same level and sown. The human remains or the urn with the ashes of the deceased person remain in the ground. It takes 60 to 80 years until the next burial, depending on the space required, until a coffin is buried in the same place again. During this time nothing is left of the former buried person, because today's cemeteries are constructed in such a way that there is no waterlogging. Also a good ventilation of the earth is provided. The decay of urns is also accelerated, because they have to be made of lightly burnt material.

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Publication of civil registrations in Switzerland and specifically in Glarus

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The publication of civil status cases (births, weddings or funerals) only began with the introduction of the cantonal civil status system on 1.1.1870. From this time on, civil registrars had to publish all entries in the civil status registers in a shortened form in the cantonal official gazettes. 

 

From 1978 onwards, the publication of a civil status case could be omitted on the basis of a substantiated request from the persons concerned to the civil status office. In the Canton of Glarus, births and deaths were published in the Official Gazette at the request of relatives. 

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In Switzerland, the application for the marriage ceremony was referred to as the "order of the marriage banns" until 30 June 1998 and was publicly displayed or published in the Official Journal for 14 days. Since 1.7.1998 the publication of marriages has been waived for reasons of data protection.

 

As of 1 July 2017, Article 57 of the Federal Ordinance on Civil Status was repealed for data protection reasons, so that the cantons may no longer authorise the civil registers to publish civil status cases. In the Canton of Glarus, since the amendment to the Federal Act, marriages, births and deaths are no longer automatically reported to the Official Gazette, and from 1 July 2019, no civil status reports have been published in the Official Gazette. However, relatives may report events to the public themselves by means of a private announcement.

 

The website Todesanzeigenportal.ch publishes all obituaries published in Switzerland in magazines or online.

 

In the communes, it is important for residents to be informed about life in the village or commune. It is not for nothing that birth, marriage and death notices are among the most widely read sections of newspapers and newsletters. Civil status announcements published online are always among the top news items and are read the most. The argument that the publication does not correspond to a predominant interest must therefore be contradicted. In the autumn session 2019, National Councillor David Zuberbühler therefore submitted a motion to the Council to lift the ban on publication of civil status reports.

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Counting your Ancestors

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Many of us are interested in where our families come from as well as who our ancestors were. What and where are our ‘roots’? Some of you might even have researched your genealogy or family history. Yet have you ever seriously considered how many direct ancestors you really have? Obviously it’s a lot, but how many? You might have even heard statements to the effect that all Europeans are descendants of Charlemagne in the eighth century or that all people of English ancestry are descended from 86% of the people living in England at the time of William the Conqueror almost a thousand years ago. If you live in North America and have English or European ancestors the same questions apply. Indeed wherever you live and whatever your ethnic ancestry the questions of descent and ancestry are the same. A short article which was posted in 2012 in the The Wild Peas Blog attempts, in a non-mathematical way, to answer or at least elucidate some of these issues.

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Here the link to the article

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How many people have ever lived on earth? Link to the article

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Table showing the theoretical number of ancestors, the age and the birth year of all your direct ancestors