Dear Jonathan, > ---------- > Von: Jonathan Farnsworth[SMTP:jonathan@nsdigital.com] > Gesendet: Dienstag, 11. Januar 2000 00:27 > An: SWITZERLAND-L@rootsweb.com > Betreff: [SWITZ] Reguest of records from Benken, Saint Gallen > > In November 1999, I submitted a request for genealogical records. I > recieved a response from Benken, saying that a change in law had occurred > and I needed to contact the Canton for permission. Do anyone know the > specifics of the law for obtaining vital records in the Canton of Saint > Gallen. > This is nothing peculiar for canton St.Gallen - this is caused by the new Federal Civil Registration Ordinance. Those reading German are invited to read an article by the SGFF President on the subject : http://www.eye.ch/swissgen/ver/chbull61.htm#ochsner The full text is available as pdf file on http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/c211_112_1.html (German) http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/rs/c211_112_1.html (French) http://www.admin.ch/ch/i/rs/c211_112_1.html (Italian) Let me give you a brief summary in English ;-) Nobody will get any information on living people : you are supposed to contact these people themselfes (there are a few exceptions - not really worth mentioning). To get information on deceased people you have to get a permission from the cantonal Civil Registry Office - the address for canton St.Gallen is Amt für Bürgerrecht u. Zivilstand Spisergasse 41 9000 St. Gallen Fax +41 71 229 35 61 Anyone planning to contact them by e-mail : send me a short note (I don't believe they would appreciate their e-mail address being published on the list). Now - to get this permission, you have to prove that you are a direct descendant ! So forget about your uncles :-((. Prove means - have a chain of documents from your birth certificate to your parents' marriage certificate to .... the person you want information about. If you get the permission - there is a fee (sfr 50 for St.Gallen - this might be different in other cantons). With this permission you are now allowed to approach the local Civil Registration Office and ask for a Familienschein - see http://swiss.genealogy.net/intro-e.htm for which the fee will usually be in the sfr 25 ... 50 range (depending on the number of entries, i.e. mainly the number of children). Don't shoot me - I haven't made the law - I'm only reporting ! This is the bad news - now, the good news is that this is only valid for data you request from a Civil Registration Office. These offices were set up in 1876 and collected some data retrospectively then - usually all people still alive and living in Switzerland - which brings you back to early 19th century in most cases (only few communities have similar records dating further back). Before this time it's church records - and these church records have been filmed to a fair extent (some cantons where few have been filmed - others, like St.Gallen, completely) and usually cover the time until 1875. Despite other rumours : you do not need any permission to view those films (when existing) !! Just go to the nearest Family History Centre, order the film (they only charge a nominal fee for this) - and try to read them : now, this might be a problem : written in German or French (depending on the area), older ones often in Latin, in an old script - often bad handwriting :-((. So what are the choices ? 19th century, prior to 1876 : if the Civil Registry Office has some data (and you are a direct descendant), this will be the more expensive way to get some data - but may still be a lot faster. If you consider this - a hint : you have to have the permission to actually get data - you don't need a permission to enquire whether a certain person can be identified in their register ! So contact Civil Registration Office first, indicate that you know about the legal requirements - and ask them to just check for the existence of your ancestor in their register : otherwise you possibly will have paid for the permission - but still don't get any data, if they don't find any data. If you go for church records : if you know the canton you are looking for - start at http://swiss.genealogy.net/ldsloc-m.htm which will lead you directly to a listing of all parishes for which something has been filmed (try St.Gallen : Benken is listed). If you don't find the village name you are looking for, there are two possible explanations - either nothing has been filmed, or the village did not form an independent parish. Unfortunately the search engine won't find village names which may be mentioned in a parish they belong to. So - if the list of villages for a canton is rather long (like St.Gallen) - try to locate the village you are looking for on a map, and check which other villages are in the neighborhood - and then check for these other villages. But how do you get on with the language and/or old script ? I consider it challenging to learn it - but time consuming : if you are determined to learn, you'll find a few hints on http://swiss.genealogy.net/asinfo-e.htm (go to translation services and related help) The alternative is help from a professional or semi-professional : whilst a few people are willing to spend their time to get you started (by giving advice on this list - or contributing to web projects like http://swiss.genealogy.net or http://german.genealogy.net/gene/reg/CH/), we just don't have the time to do research for you. After all - these people do this in their spare time and have another profession to earn their living - or they would be professional genealogists ;-) ! I hope some of you find this information useful, and wish you good luck with your further research - Wolf ---------------------- Wolf W. Seelentag, PhD, e-mail : wolf@swissmail.com Reherstr. 19, CH - 9016 St. Gallen, Switzerland Tel (home) : +41-71-2885121 Fax : +49-89-2443-91987 Tel (work) : +41-71-4942233