Dear Robert and Fran! I bet you'll get all kinds of wise counsel before long..... the > true brains of this List are often so busy with their real life [i.e. family, making a > living, etc.] that it takes them a while to find time for their hobby. > Now, if you have data clear back to 1550, at which time > very slowly records were starting to be kept in churches, you > are doing extremely well and above average. > > In the meantime I'll share a couple of ways I've widened my genealogy > results: > For Switzerland you can go to "Search" and enter any given town of interest to you... followed by ".CH" (CH meaning "Switzerland"). For example, take my hometown "Aarau.CH" , click and there is the most wonderful website on anything vital in Aarau; libraries, archives, schools, clubs, etc. > What resulted in great leads for me was clicking on "Vereine" (clubs or societies... > specific interest groups ). >For example I made contact with the "Historische Verein" (Historical Society) > of Aarau, which in turn brought me to the president of the local Yodeler Club ;-) who also happened to work at the Stadtskanzlei (Bureau of Records). Try any contact. > Of course its all in German/French or Italian ... depending on what > region you are contacting. > The nice thing about the Swiss is that many bother to study English, and > in case your German is not adequate they don't mind practicing it to > help you along. So shop around. If a small village is not represented, look under Kanton (i.e., " Aargau.CH" in my case) and find the closest community that has a website; their records may cover the ones of your small community. Its worth a try. > > The other one, of course, is trying to find historical literature, > chronicals, lexicons, etc. on the areas > you are interested in. That's where the particular local libraries and > archives would come in. > You'd be surprised how often you find some "same name mentions" in > those. And that might open new avenues. > As for finding proveable connections with same name relatives from > 1550 on backward, that is only possible if they were famous (or > infamous) for one reason or another; people who were renouned for > great accomplishments, etc and therefore left a verifyable, > indisputable written trail in documents of public transactions, etc. > Even at best that becomes very sketchy, unless they left behind a > written genealogy. > > http://www.eye.ch/swissgen is a bottomless source of great leads as > to checking out archives and sources in many areas. Whether you come up with new names and dates for your pedigree chart or not, it is enriching to you to learn the history of the areas your ancestors walked..... they were part of that history. Actually, they are that history. Hanneli > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Robert Rothenbuhler <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Hi, > > I only receive one response on the researching > > before 1555 question and it really did not tell me > > anything. > > robert