Filzbach, Glarus, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Filzbach, 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
As of 2006, Filzbach had an area of 13.9 km2 (5.4 sq mi). The municipality is located on a terrace of the Kerenzerberg mountain above Lake Walensee.

The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 35.4% is used for agricultural purposes
 * 40.9% is forested
 * 4.6% is settled (buildings or roads)
 * 19.1% is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains)

History
The first mention of Filzbach is in 1394 as "Vilentzspach". Filzbach became part of the municipality of Glarus Nord on 1 January 2011.

Along with the village, the common territory included a zone of habitat distributed on the plate of Kerenzerberg surmounting the lake of Walenstadt. Other localities that merged to form Glarus Nord municipality include:
 * Bilten
 * Mollis
 * Mühlehorn
 * Näfels
 * Niederurnen
 * Oberurnen
 * Obstalden

The population history of Filzbach is: 1888 - 418 inhabitants 1900 - 407 inhabitants 1950 - 393 inhabitants 2000 - 542 inhabitants 2010 - 509 inhabitants

The inhabitants were first part of the parish of Schänis, then that of Obstalden from the 14th century. In 1528, Filzbach became part of the Reform.

The first schoolhouse was inaugurated in 1838.

Church Records
Filzbach belonged to the parish of Kerenzen. 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. Filzbach 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. Filzbach is now part of the Glarus Nord municipality. The municipality website can be accessed here.

Libraries and archives
State Archives of Glarus