Morbio Superiore Parish, Ticino, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Morbio Superiore 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, Morbio Superiore has an area of 2.75 square kilometers (1.06 sq mi). The village is situated in the Mendrisio district, at the entrance to the Muggio valley on the left side of the valley. It includes the village of Morbio Superiore and the hamlet of Lattecaldo.

The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 18.5% - agricultural purposes
 * 69.8% - forested
 * 12.7% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 0.7% - unproductive land

On 25 October 2009, the following municipalities merged into the municipality of Breggia:
 * Bruzella
 * Cabbio
 * Caneggio
 * Morbio Superiore
 * Muggio
 * Sagno

History
The first mention of Muggio was in 852 as Mugio.

The population history of Muggio is: 1801 - 468 inhabitants 1850 - 591 inhabitants 1900 - 652 inhabitants 1950 - 474 inhabitants 2000 - 206 inhabitants

Inhabited since ancient times, in the 9th century there were Huben managed by serf farmers. In 1299, various plots of land belonged to the cathedral chapter of Como. Even then Muggio was mentioned together with other communities in the valley and was spiritually united to Cabbio. It was only after 1673, that Muggio became vice-parish, which depended on the Pieve of Balerna until the 19th century. Built in 1578, the Church of San Lorenzo was rebuilt in 1760 and restored several times, the last time in 2003-2004.

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

The 1808 Ticino census for Morbio Superiore can be accessed here.

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Morbio Superiore 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)