Schwanden Parish, Glarus, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Schwanden 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
Schwanden is located at the Linth and Sernf rivers confluence along the roads to Elm, Linthal and Schwändi. Its elevation is 528 m (1,732 ft). The nearby villages are:
 * North - village of Mitlödi in the valley of the Linth
 * South - villages of Nidfurn and Haslen in the valley of Linth
 * East - village of Engi in the valley of Semf
 * Other - village of Schwandi on the west slope of the valley - village of Sool on the east slope of the valley

Schwanden has an area of 30.6 km² (11.8 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 38.3% - forested
 * 32.3% - agricultural purposes
 * 3.2% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 26.2% - non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains)

Switzerland's oldest hunting-banned area (Freiberg Kärpf) is located south of Schwanden and has been protected since 1548.

History
The first mention of Schwanden was in 1240 using the name of De Swando. Schwanden became part of the Glarus Süd municipality on 1 January 2011. Other localities merged include:
 * Betschwanden
 * Braunwald
 * Elm
 * Engi
 * Haslen (GL)
 * Linthal
 * Luchsingen
 * Matt
 * Mitlödi
 * Rüti (GL)
 * Schwändi
 * Sool

The population history of Schwanden is: 1574 - 450 inhabitants 1763 - 1,148 inhabitants 1850 - 2,296 inhabitants 1900 - 2,396 inhabitants 1950 - 2,920 inhabitants 1960 - 3,020 inhabitants 2000 - 2,601 inhabitants 2010 - 2,392 inhabitants

The Swiss Northeastern Railway line from Weesen to Linthal opened in 1879 and connected Schwanden to the railway network. Other communities in the valley of the Sernf river as far as Elm were connected to Schwanden with the Sernftal tramway between 1905 and 1969.

Celtic and Roman era remains are found in the area. The oldest preserved house was built in the 13th century. The first church was built in 1349 (the first subsidiary of the Glarus parish) and used until 1558 as a shared mass. Built in 1757, the Powder Tower serves the Protestant part of the canton. The Catholic church was consecrated in 1895 and then rebuilt in 1973.

Church Records
Baptism and marriage records for the parish of Schwanden began in 1611, while burials began in 1662. 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. Schwanden 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. Schwanden is now part of the Glarus Süd municipality. The municipality website can be accessed here.

Libraries and archives
State Archives of Glarus