Braunwald, Glarus, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Braunwald, 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
Braunwald is located on a terrace above the Linth valley in the Glarus Alps and overlooks the villages of Rüti and Linthal in the valley below. Its elevation is 1,256 meters (4,121 ft).

Braunwald has an area of 10.1 km² (3.9 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 28.5% - forested
 * 43.7% - agricultural purposes
 * 3.2% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 24.6% - non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains)

History
The first mention of Braunwald was in 1421 using the name of Brunwald. The village of Braunwald was part of the municipality of Rüti until 1939 when it split off to form its own municipality. Braunwald became part of the Glarus Süd municipality on 1 January 2011. Other localities merged include:
 * Betschwanden
 * Elm
 * Engi
 * Haslen (GL)
 * Linthal
 * Luchsingen
 * Matt
 * Mitlödi
 * Rüti (GL)
 * Schwanden (GL)
 * Schwändi
 * Sool

The population history of Braunwald is: 1941 - 327 inhabitants 1950 - 402 inhabitants 1960 - 491 inhabitants 2000 - 408 inhabitants 2010 - 308 inhabitants

Braunwald has a history around its ski industry. In 1856, the Niederschlacht Inn was built and became a famous hotel. In 1907, the Braunwald funicular was opened and attracted several other hotels. In the second half of 20th century, chair lifts and gondola lifts opened to increase access to the ski slopes above the village.

In 1942, the Protestant parish of Braunwald was established (mountain church from 1962 to 1964). In 1950, the Catholics chapel was consecrated and depended on the parish of Linthal.

Church Records
Braunwald belonged to the parishes of Betschwanden and Linthal. 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. Braunwald 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. Braunwald is now part of the Glarus Süd municipality. The municipality website can be accessed here.

Libraries and archives
State Archives of Glarus