Lucerne Canton, Switzerland Genealogy

Guide to Lucerne canton ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

History
In 1415 Lucerne gained Reichsfreiheit and became a strong member of the Swiss confederacy and the city developed its own infrastructure, raised taxes, and appointed its own local officials. After the victory of the Catholics over the Protestants in the Battle at Kappel in 1531, the Catholic towns dominated the confederacy. The future, however, belonged to the Protestant cities like Zürich, Bern and Basel, which defeated the Catholics in the 1712 Toggenburg War. Lucerne was also involved in the Swiss peasant war of 1653. In 1798, nine years after the beginning of the French Revolution, the French army marched into Switzerland. That is when the old confederacy collapsed and the government became democratic. From 1850 to 1913, the population quadrupled and the flow of settlers increased. 

Research Tools
Online-Queries in the database of the Canton of Lucerne State Archive