Mollis Parish, Glarus, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Mollis 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
Mollis has an area, as of 2006, of 21.8 km2 (8.4 sq mi). The municipality is located on a terrace of the Kerenzerberg mountain below Lake Walensee. It is located on the right side of the Linth valley in the Glarus Unterland. Mollis includes the area from the Linth Canal and Lake Walensee to the Schlattbach River in Netstal. The municipality is made up of the village of Mollis and the hamlets of Beglingen on the Kerenzerberg mountain and the alpine settlement of Mullern.

The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 41% is used for agricultural purposes
 * 44.9% is forested
 * 8.2% is settled (buildings or roads)
 * 5.9% is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains)

History
The first mention of Mollis was in 1288. Mollis became part of the municipality of Glarus Nord on 1 January 2011.

Other localities that merged to form Glarus Nord municipality include:


 * Bilten
 * Filzbach
 * Mühlehorn
 * Näfels
 * Niederurnen
 * Oberurnen
 * Obstalden

The population history of Mollis is: 1554 - 440 inhabitants 1701 - 1150 inhabitants 1799 - 1654 inhabitants 1850 - 2041 inhabitants 1900 - 1912 inhabitants 1950 - 2191 inhabitants 1970 - 2628 inhabitants 2000 - 2974 inhabitants 2010 - 3337 inhabitants

Important land properties of Mollis were taken over by the convent of Säckingen during the 8th century. The chapel built in 1280 became a church in 1319. Mollis was finally separated from the parish of Glarus and formed a new parish that also included Näfels and Oberurnen. From 1523 through 1525, the pastor at Mollis Fridolin Brunner, introduced the Reformation to the community. There was strong Catholic resistance so the images and the mass weren't abolished until 1529. A Catholic parish was then formed by Näfels and Oberurnen. There were serious dissensions between the two communities for a long time. In 1761, a new catholic church was erected and dedicated to Mary. The Kerenzerberg road was constructed between 1836 and 1851. In 1859, Mollis was connected to the railway network of Union-Switzerland.

Church Records
Baptism records for the parish of Mollis began in 1607, while marriages began in 1627 and burials in 1617. Information from the 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. Mollis 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. Mollis is now part of the Glarus Nord municipality. The municipality website can be accessed here.

Libraries and archives
State Archives of Glarus