About Switzerland – Hine Archive

Swiss Civil Structure

Switzerland is made up of 26 cantons, kind of like states in the US. Those are divided into districts (German: amtsbezirke) made up of individual municipalities/communities (communes) which are the smallest civil entities in Switzerland. The canton of Bern is located in west-central Switzerland is composed of 26 districts, which were recently combined into 10. Its capital city, Bern, is also the de facto capital of Switzerland.

Swiss Records, a Quick Primer

As a genealogist I find every country and time period has its quirks, but Switzerland is a whole league unto its own. I won’t go too deep, as I’m still new at Swiss genealogy and there are fantastic resources already out there such as this one. But the most important thing to understand is Switzerland was (and remains) a highly decentralized country, with a strong tradition of local autonomy. Each municipality creates and maintains its own vital records and there’s no central or standardized record keeping.

Furthermore, civil events like births, marriages and deaths are tied to the individual’s citizenship rather than place of residence. Citizenship is inherited, usually from the father (especially back in the time of “our” Kappelers) and does not change. This means a records is not necessarily kept where the corresponding event happened; it would instead be found in the community where the person has citizenship.

The nice thing about this is that when you do find a record, you find ALL the records, and likely the records for the person’s entire family. On the flip side, a marriage record in Wattenwil doesn’t necessarily mean the couple was married in Wattenwil, or even lived there. Often the record will state the circumstances of the event, but when you combine old handwriting with the German language and absence of standardized format, deciphering these records can be challenging. Here’s an excerpt just to make your eyes cross: