Peccia Parish, Ticino, Switzerland Genealogy

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



Geography
The municipality of Peccia is in the Vallemaggia district and the Ticino canton. It consists of the Cortigneli, Piano di Peccia, San Carlo, and Veglia (Véia) villages spread throughout the Peccia valley. The main village is at an elevation of 840 m (2,760 ft) in the Maggia Valley. Peccia (as of 1997) had an area of 54.26 km² (20.95 square miles). The land use was divided up as follows:
 * 0.7% - agricultural purposes
 * 26.7% - forested
 * 0.9% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 1.7% - rivers or lakes
 * 52.5% - unproductive land

History
In 1374, Peccia was first mentioned with the name of Petia. Until 1375, Broglio, Fusio, Peccia, Prato and Sornico were part of the valley community of Lavizzara. It separated into individual villages with Peccia being the largest. Until 1669, the Mogno and the Valle di Peccia villages remained part of Peecia and separated themselves. Until 1929, the communities of Fusio, Peccia, Prato and Sornico shared common land. Peccia is in the Vallemaggia district and the Ticino canton. Peccia merged into the municipality of Lavizzara on 8 October 2003. Other former municipalities merged include:
 * Broglio
 * Brontallo
 * Fusio
 * Menzonio
 * Prato-Sornico

The population history of Peccia is: 1500 - 800-900 inhabitants 1795 - 300 inhabitants 1850 - 300 inhabitants 1860 - 273 inhabitants 1870 - 269 inhabitants 1880 - 274 inhabitants 1888 - 249 inhabitants 1900 - 229 inhabitants 1910 - 231 inhabitants 1920 - 209 inhabitants 1930 - 210 inhabitants 1941 - 202 inhabitants 1950 - 212 inhabitants 1960 - 244 inhabitants 1970 - 275 inhabitants 1980 - 203 inhabitants 1990 - 172 inhabitants 2000 - 171 inhabitants 2003 - 189 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 93.0% were Roman Catholic
 * 1.2% were Swiss Reformed Church
 * 1.7& were Christian Catholic Church

Until 1613, Peccia was part of the Sornico parish. In 1613, Peccia became its own parish with the church of St. Antoine-le-Grand. The church was built in the 16th century. In 1834 and 1868, the church was rebuilt after floods destroyed the church and parts of the village. In 1617, the Saint-Charles valley church was built. It became a parish church in 1669.

Church Records
Peccia was home to two parish churches:

San Antonio Abate
San Antonio Abate was established as a parish church in 1613; before 1613, the area belonged to the parish of Sornico. The church was rebuilt after the floods of 1834 and 1868, which resulted in heavy record loss.

San Carlo
The parish of San Carlo was created in 1669.

Census
(See here for information regarding Ticino census records.)

The 1808 Ticino census for Peccia is split into fractions:
 * San Antonio Abbate can be accessed here.
 * San Carlo can be accessed here.
 * San Giovanni Battista can be accessed here.

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Peccia prior to 1875, along with any known soprannomi. For more information about soprannomi, click here.

Related sources
The town's website (in Italian) can be found here.

Libraries and archives
State Archives of Ticino

Societies
Società Genealogica della Svizzera Italiana (SGSI)