Linthal Parish, Glarus, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Linthal Parish, Glarus, Switzerland, ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, parish census, civil census, family history, area history, and military records.



Geography
Linthal is located at the head of the Linth river valley. Its elevation is 650 m (2,130 ft). This municipality included the dispersed habitat of Auen and the districts of the Matt, Dorf and Ennetlinth. It is surrounded by mountains with the Klausen Pass and the Richetle Pass climbing out of the valley and connecting to outside communities. The village of Rüti is located to the north (down the valley). There are no villages to the south. The resort village of Braunwald is located on a terrace above the valley.

Linthal has an area of 131.2 km² (50.7 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 15.5% - forested
 * 16.9% - agricultural purposes
 * 0.9% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 66.8% - non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains)

History
The first mention of Linthal was in 1289 using the name of Lintal. Linthal became part of the Glarus Süd municipality on 1 January 2011. Other localities merged include:
 * Betschwanden
 * Braunwald
 * Elm
 * Engi
 * Haslen (GL)
 * Luchsingen
 * Matt
 * Mitlödi
 * Rüti (GL)
 * Schwanden (GL)
 * Schwändi
 * Sool

The population history of Linthal is: 1777 - 994 inhabitants 1799 - 1,538 inhabitants 1850 - 1,745 inhabitants 1880 - 2,301 inhabitants 1900 - 1,894 inhabitants 1950 - 1,741 inhabitants 1960 - 2,645 inhabitants 1970 - 1,458 inhabitants 2000 - 1,200 inhabitants 2010 - 1,088 inhabitants

The Swiss Northeastern Railway line from Weesen to Linthal opened in 1879 and connected Linthal to the railway network. Between 1895 and 1900, a road over the Klausen Pass was built.

Taxes were paid to Säckingen Abbey until 1395. A chapel established in 1289 became a parish church in 1319. In 1333, a hermitage of nuns adjoined the church. In 1528 during the Reformation, most of Linthal remained faithful to the old religion. In 1543, only a small number of Catholics remained. Protestants worshiped at Betschwanden until a temple was built at Ennetlinth in 1604.

Church Records
Reformed baptism and marriage records for the Reformed parish of Linthal began in 1601, while burials began in 1640. Catholic records began in 1654. Information from both Catholic and Reformed church records was extracted by Johann Jakob Kubly-Müller and organized into families. The Glarus Family Tree has made much of this data available online.

Original church records for Canton Glarus are only accessible at the Glarus State Archives.

Civil Registration
Civil registration began in 1849. Linthal belongs to the Glarus civil registration district. Records are only available in Switzerland. For further information, contact the civil registry office at:

Zivilstandskreis Glarus Postgasse 29 8750 Glarus Tel: +41 55 646 69 50 email: [mailto:zivilstandsamt@gl.ch zivilstandsamt@gl.ch]

Genealogies
(Click here for an article describing Swiss compiled genealogies.)

The Glarus Family Tree is a project which shows the family links between about 200 original families from Glarus. The source of most of this information is the 30-year, 36-volume genealogical masterpiece by Johann Jakob Kubly-Müller. The tree has more than 270,000 individuals can be found online at Geneal-Tree, MyHeritage, Geneanet, and Ancestry.

Related sources
In 2011, Canton Glarus was reorganized into three municipalities. Linthal is now part of the Glarus Süd municipality. The municipality website can be accessed here.

Libraries and archives
State Archives of Glarus