Information in the parish records of the local Reformed church in Frutigen, Canton Bern, appear to let me trace my patrilineal line back to about the late 1540s to early 1550s. I'm curious, when did Zwingli's Reformed faith come to the Bernese Oberland? Wasn't it only a few decades before this? And were the former Catholic parish registers, giving baptism and marriage records, typically burned at the time? Did any survive in areas that become Protestant? Thanks Dale Bricker

> Von: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] > Gesendet: Sonntag, 2. Februar 2003 04:44 > > Information in the parish records of the local Reformed > church in Frutigen, Canton Bern, appear to let me trace > my patrilineal line back to about the late 1540s to early > 1550s. I'm curious, when did Zwingli's Reformed faith > come to the Bernese Oberland? Wasn't it only a few decades > before this? And were the former Catholic parish registers, > giving baptism and marriage records, typically burned at > the time? Did any survive in areas that become Protestant? As described on http://swiss.genealogy.net/kibu/ the Council of Trient (1563) made baptismal and marriage registers a requirement (death registers since 1614) for the catholic church, largely as a reaction to the registers kept by protestant parishes. This didn't mean that all priests immediately started to keep these registers - I guess many of them just saw the additional work, and no or little benefit. Combined with some losses (not being burned on purpose, but e.g. the church burning) the effect of this is that only very few catholic registers prior to 1600 exist nowadays. I'm not sure when the oldest (still existing) catholic register in Switzerland starts - but very much doubt it covers the time you are looking for. When checking the LDS film catalogue, starting dates prior to 1563 are occasionally found: whenever I have checked details, however, this never included christening or marriage or death registers, but always things like anniversary mass registers or fraternity documents - which can obviously also contain very interesting information, but usually no vital data. Best regards - Wolf > Thanks > > Dale Bricker > > > ==== SWITZERLAND Mailing List ==== > Swiss Resource Site > http://swiss.genealogy.net