Prato-Sornico Parish, Ticino, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Prato-Sornico 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
The municipality of Prato-Sornico is in the Vallemaggia district and the Ticino canton. It contains the villages of Prato and Sornico which were previously separate municipalities. They merged into Prato-Sornico in 1864. It is located 37 km (23 mi) from Locarno. The village includes the peak of Pizzo Campo Tencia (3,071 m (10,075 ft) high). Prato-Sornico (as of 1997) had an area of 38.34 km² (14.80 square miles). The land use was divided up as follows:
 * 0.5% - agricultural purposes
 * 29.9% - forested
 * 0.3% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 0.9% - rivers or lakes
 * 54.0% - unproductive land

History
In 1374, Prato and Sornico were first mentioned. Until 1374, Broglio, Fusio, Peccia, Prato, and Sornico formed the Lavizzara valley community. In 1374, Prato and Sornico became independent villages. Until 1929, Fusio, Peccia, Prato and Sornico shared common land. Prato-Sornico is in the Vallemaggia district and the Ticino canton. Prato-Sornico merged into the municipality of Lavizzara on 8 October 2003. Other former municipalities merged include:
 * Broglio
 * Brontallo
 * Fusio
 * Menzonio
 * Peccia

The population history of Prato-Sornico is: 1700 - 800 inhabitants 1776 - 335 inhabitants 1850 - 161 inhabitants 1860 - 157 inhabitants 1870 - 175 inhabitants 1880 - 166 inhabitants 1888 - 150 inhabitants 1900 - 124 inhabitants 1910 - 114 inhabitants 1920 - 96 inhabitants 1930 - 118 inhabitants 1941 - 99 inhabitants 1950 - 104 inhabitants 1960 - 108 inhabitants 1970 - 111 inhabitants 1980 - 103 inhabitants 1990 - 92 inhabitants 2000 - 104 inhabitants 2003 - 112 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 91.3% were Roman Catholic
 * 2.9% were Swiss Reformed Church
 * 1.0% belong to another church

In the 14th century, the church of Saint-Martin church in Sornico is first mentioned. It could date back to the 11th century. In the 16th century, it was the mother church. In 1747, It became the Provost's church. In 1487, the parish church of Saints-Fabien-et-Sébastien in Prato. It was rebuilt in 1730 and re-consecrated in 1761.

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

The 1808 Ticino census for Prato-Sornico was divided into fractions:
 * Prato can be accessed here.
 * Sornico can be accessed here.

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Prato-Sornico 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)