Losone Parish, Ticino, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Losone 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
As of 1997, Losone has an area of 9.53 square kilometers (3.68 sq mi). The municipality is situated in the Locarno district, on the right side of the Maggia river below the junction of the Melezza river. It includes the village of Losone and the hamlets of Saleggi and Gerre near the river, the hamlets of San Rocco, San Lorenzo and San Giorgio on the plateau and the hamlet of Arcegno in the mountains.

The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 20.5% - agricultural purposes
 * 65.0% - forested
 * 20.0% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 3.3% - rivers or lakes
 * 2.0% - unproductive land

History
The first mention of Losone was 1061 as Loxono though this is from a 1402 copy of the original. Later in 1200, it was mentioned as de losono.

The population history of Losone is: 1850 - 642 inhabitants 1900 - 698 inhabitants 1950 - 1437 inhabitants 1970 - 3808 inhabitants 1980 - 4911 inhabitants 2000 - 5907 inhabitants

During the Middle Ages, the settlement or borgo consisted of; the so-called Bassa Losone, Arcegno and until 1807, Vosa im Onsernonetal. It established a Vicinanza in the parish of Locarno and had its own statutes and laws. The status of an independent Vicinanza was recorded in 1734. Losone possessed rights to alpine pastures in the valleys of Bosco/Gurin, Onsernone and Vigezzo. The population paid to the nobles of Locarno a tithe on vineyards and grain. In 1799, Losone resisted the Helvetic authorities who wanted to create a political municipality. Even after it became a political municipality in 1803, the community played an important political and economic role. The parish church of San Lorenzo is first recorded in 1243, though it is older than that. It separated, sometime before 1580, from the mother church of San Vittore in Muralto to form a parish and in 1747, the church was allowed a rector.

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

The 1808 Ticino census for Losone can be accessed here.

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Losone 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)