Berzona Parish, Ticino, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Berzona 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
Berzona is a village and former municipality in the district of Lacarno, in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. The village in the Onsernone Valley, in a hollow on the hillside surrounded by chestnut forests on the highway to Vergeletto and Comologno, about 15 km northwest of Locarno. Berzona also consisted of the Seghelina fraction directly on the cantonal road that runs below the main village.

History
The first mention of Berzona was in 1265 as Berzona.

On 21 January 2001, a new and larger municipality Isorno was formed when the following municipalities merged:
 * Auressio
 * Berzona
 * Loco

On 10 April 2016, Isorno was one of the municipalities that merged into Onsernone municipality.

The population history of Berzona is: 1795 - 306 inhabitants 1808 - 286 inhabitants 1850 - 235 inhabitants 1900 - 151 inhabitants 1950 - 84 inhabitants 2000 - 48 inhabitants

From the Middle Ages onwards, Berzona belonged as a group to the old valley community of Onsernone. The church of Saint Defendente was built in 1564 and raised to the status of parish church when Loco was divided from the church in 1777. Also worth noting are the chapels of Saint Maria (1682) and Saint Maria Lauretana (1766) in Seghelina. The municipality of Berzona and the new canton of Ticino were both founded in 1803.

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

The 1808 Ticino census for Berzona can be accessed here.

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Berzona 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)