Switzerland Cemeteries

Europe Switzerland

The area of land used for cemeteries in Switzerland has remained the same for many years. There is no extra ground to expand them thus forcing them to cycle through their various plots. Many cemeteries have headstones that only date back 25 years, but varies according to location. Seldom will you find a headstone dating back more than 40 years unless it is a headstone of a pastor or very prominate citizen in their town. Even in smaller, more rural communities the headstones are not older than about 30 years.

Death memorials and cemetery inscriptions (Jahrzeitbücher und Friedhofsinschriften Obituaires, registres des cultes anniversaires des décès, et inscriptions mortuaires)
Research use: Used to distinguish adults from deceased children with similar names in parish registers where death information is often very meager.

Record type: Obituaries, gravestone burial inscriptions and sexton records.

Time Period: 1350-present.

Content: Names, ages, death and burial dates and places, birth dates and places, sometimes relatives, names of persons who paid for masses to be read.

Location: Church and civil archives, private collections, city cemetery registries, periodicals, newspapers.

Population coverage: 40%.

Reliability: Good.

Cemeteries
BillionGraves has two cemeteries in Switzerland that has had some headstones photographed by site users.


 * Tierfencastel St. Stefan Roman Catholic Cemetery
 * Unidentified small cemetery near Geneva Switzerland Airport, Grand-Sacconex, Geneva