Obstalden, Glarus, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Obstalden, 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, Obstalden has an area of 23.8 km2 (9.2 sq mi). Obstalden includes the village of Obstalden and the hamlets of Mülital, Voglingen, Nidstalden, Stocken and Walenguflen.

The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 37.6% is used for agricultural purposes
 * 26% is forested
 * 1.2% is settled (buildings or roads)
 * 35.2% is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains)

History
The first mention of Obstalden was in 1310. Obstalden became part of the municipality of Glarus Nord on 1 January 2011.

Other localities that merged to form Glarus Nord municipality include:


 * Bilten
 * Filzbach
 * Mollis
 * Mühlehorn
 * Näfels
 * Niederurnen
 * Oberurnen

The population history of Obstalden is: 1888 - 489 inhabitants 1900 - 472 inhabitants 1950 - 497 inhabitants 2000 - 434 inhabitants 2010 - 443 inhabitants

Until the 14th century, it spiritually was part of the parish of Schänis. Obstalden's church, built around 1300 and mentioned for the first time in 1444, houses murals from the 14th and 15th centuries. It adopted the Reformation in 1528 and completely separated from Schänis in 1593.

Church Records
Baptism, marriage, and burial records for the parish of Kerenzen began in 1834; the old church records were destroyed in a fire. 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. Obstalden 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. Obstalden is now part of the Glarus Nord municipality. The municipality website can be accessed here.

Libraries and archives
State Archives of Glarus