Hi to Barbara and a number of other listers, I hope that I was not misleading when I stated that "I got my full family genealogy - back to 1600 - for $50." But I did. I did send extra money for their children's nursery as a thank you, and promised to send the ship information when I found it, to add to their history. Now, THIS MAY NOT WORK FOR YOU IN YOUR CANTON. To tell my story: my great grandfather and his family were born and raised in small towns in the very teen canton of GLARUS (maybe 20 miles long and less than 5 miles wide), nestled in the center of Eastern German-speaking Switzerland. GLARUS is also the name of the capital city in the canton of GLARUS. I googled GLARUS, GLARUS, on the web, found an address, emailed a query, and for $50 the records office would send me all that they had on my family. I followed their directions and mailed a money order to the suggested address. (note: I did this a number of years ago, so if yours are from Glarus, go ahead and google for the correct address.) NOW, AS FOR MANY OF YOU, your families may NOT have come from the canton GLARUS. So I would suggest to you that you google YOUR canton, find some kind of address (there will be at least one on one of the sites I am sure) and either write or email to that address. All records are kept by each canton. There is no central place (National Archives) for records that I know of. As far as my experience goes, you MUST query the canton that your family is from. And maybe not all cantons will search for you... It helps a great deal to have the canton AND THE TOWN THAT YOUR FAMILY CAME FROM. I don't know as they will do research...mine just sent records. All of Switzerland's cantons kept excellent church and state records, and we who have roots there are quite lucky that so much is still intact. Whether your canton has an easy procedure for you to procure your records, is unknown by me. My query was in both German and English, because I had no idea if they could speak English. YOUR query may have to be in French or Italian, depending on what part of Switzerland your ancestors are from. (East spoke German, South Italian, and West side speaks French). There is no common "Swiss" language. Since you should write your query in both English and another language, check out the translation free programs that are on the web. (google the term "free translations") I had used AltaVista but there are a number of better translation programs on the web now, so see which one is easiest for you to use. I sent my letter in both English and the German translation. (Yes, for you who speak German or your ancestor's language, I am sure that it was a very rough translation, and they may have chuckled a little when they read it! I also know that citizens of other countries are very tolerant when I at least try to speak their language, rather than to be arrogant and expect them to speak mine.) Hope this helps!! Nellie, a 68-yr-old root digger _http://www.militaryindexes.com/worldwartwo/_ (http://www.militaryindexes.com/worldwartwo/) WWII index - free for today _http://www.militaryindexes.com/worldwarone/_ (http://www.militaryindexes.com/worldwarone/) WWI - free until 25 Nov 2005