Niederurnen Parish, Glarus, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Niederurnen 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
As of 2006, Niederurnen has an area of 14.1 km2 (5.4 sq mi). Niederurnen is located in the Glarner Unterland at the mouth of the Niederurnertal or Alpental valley. The municipality includes the village of Niederurnen and the industrial park of Ziegelbrücke, which is separated from the rest of the municipality by the motorway.

The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 37.2% is used for agricultural purposes
 * 45.9% is forested
 * 10.6% is settled (buildings or roads)
 * 6.4% is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains)

History
The first mention of Niederurnen was either before 1045 or between 1077 and 1101 as Niter Urnnen. Niederurnen became part of the municipality of Glarus Nord on 1 January 2011.

Other localities that merged to form Glarus Nord municipality include:


 * Bilten
 * Filzbach
 * Mollis
 * Mühlehorn
 * Näfels
 * Oberurnen
 * Obstalden

The population history of Niederurnen is: 1543 - about 200 inhabitants 1701 - 532 inhabitants 1799 - 770 inhabitants 1850 - 1505 inhabitants 1900 - 1873 inhabitants 1950 - 2931 inhabitants 2000 - 3741 inhabitants 2010 - 3928 inhabitants

From about 1030, the village belonged to the church of Schänis and, from the 12th century, of the lordship of the abbey of Schänis. The Sainte-Vérène chapel was stripped in 1528 of its images and its altars. From 1605, the majority of the inhabitants of Niederurnen joined the Reformation. In 1659, the chapel was enlarged to become a church. In 1937, a new catholic church of Saint-Joseph was built.

Niederurnen was attached to the North-East railway line linking Ziegelbrücke to Glarus in 1875.

Church Records
Baptism, marriage, and burial records for the parish of Niederurnen began in 1680. 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. Niederurnen 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. Niederurnen is now part of the Glarus Nord municipality. The municipality website can be accessed here.

Libraries and archives
State Archives of Glarus