Guide for Genealogists and Family Historians

How to find genealogical information about your ancestors

Family Research can be quite a tedious process. To help you on your way, we have compiled the most important steps of the research process in the following guide:

Step 1: Start collecting information in your family.

No matter your motivation, you should ideally start with collecting information within your family. Where are your family members from? How many siblings does your grandmother have? When was your maternal grandmother born? Questioning your family members can lead to dates of birth as well as dates of death, places of origin, family relationships as well as diaries, letters, photographs, contracts etc., which can help you research your family.

In order to find more information about your family history, you should start with the youngest members of your family. This usually begins with you: write down your name, date and place of birth, date and place of marriage, and the name of your spouse. After that, you can continue with your parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. Write down the date and place of birth, marriage and death of every person, until you run out of information.

Often someone in the family has a bible containing a family record, a box of birth certificates, obituaries, old photographs and further information that might help you. Do not forget to talk to older members of your family to see what they know. Collecting information in your family is the basis for doing family research in Switzerland.

Step 2: How to continue your research.

Before approaching the Swiss administration for information, please be aware of a specific characteristic of family research in Switzerland: genealogical research is organised around the community of origin and citizenship, the so-called “Bürgerort” (“place of origin”). Very often, the "Bürgerort" is not the place where someone was born or lived. You inherit the right of citizenship from parent - mostly the father - to child or you obtain the right of citizenship by marriage or by naturalisation. In order to find any genealogical information, you have to find out the "Bürgerort" of your ancestors. If you can't find any information on the "Bürgerort" of your ancestors, you can try to look it ub in the "Familiennamenbuch der Schweiz" (see link at the bottom of the page). This website contains a list of all the family names that had the right of citizenship in 1962, as well as the parish they lived in in 1962, sorted alphabetically. Contact the civil registry office and/or the archive of the canton where your family members had their "Bürgerort".

If your ancestors had their “Bürgerort” in the Canton of Schaffhausen, you should follow these steps:

Data from 1876 until today

For this period of time, dates of birth, marriage and death were documented in Civil Status Registers. Historically all communities/towns in the Canton of Schaffhausen had their own state civil registry offices. Since 2004, there is only one State Civil Registry Office ("Zivilstandsamt") in the Canton where all Civil Status Registers and family registers are now held.

For finding further information about birth, marriage, and death of your direct ancestors (parents, grandparents, great-grandparents), you need to write a letter to the State Civil Registry Office.

The written application and request have to include exact information about the persons you want to get information about. Furthermore, you have to include a copy of your identity card or passport. After that, the State Civil Registry Office will send you an extract of the Civil Status Registers. Please note, however, that this service is not free of charge.

If you want to know more about further ancestors in collateral line, you also need a special permit issued by the “Amt für Justiz and Gemeinden” (“Office for Justice and Communities”). This permit is not free of charge.

Data prior to 1876

Before 1876, the clergy registered baptisms, marriages, and funerals in so-called parish or church registers. These are the most important sources for genealogical research in the Canton of Schaffhausen. In some cases, the church registers even go back to the middle of the 16th century. In 2013 they were digitised and are now provided online on our website. Click on the link "Kirchenbücher des Kantons Schaffhausen" at the bottom of the page for further information. You will find detailed instructions to our online viewer here in the section Downloads at the bottom of the page.

Before searching for family names in church registers, please keep the following aspects in mind:

The church registers do not include an index of proper names. Therefore, you have to look at all the entries that come into consideration, for example all entries of funerals of a particular year, to find the entry you are looking for.

The entries are always handwritten. In some cases, the church registers are written in Latin. It is possible to learn how to read these old handwritten documents, but please be aware that searching in church registers can take some time.

You can expect support from the archivists, but the staff of the State Archives of Schaffhausen cannot do the genealogical research for you. We will help you navigate the online church registers; the research itself is up to you.

If you cannot do the research on your own, the Swiss Society of Genealogical Research (Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Familienforschung SGFF) (see link at the bottom of the page) can help you and, if needed, provide you with a list of genealogists, who can research on your behalf. This specialised association offers valuable support in addition to the archivists.

Other sources of information

Apart from Civil Status Registers and church registers, the State Archives hold other important funds, such as court records or taxation records, which might be interesting for genealogists. However, sometimes these documents are subject to data protection rules. In this case, you will have to apply for access to the records. Please feel free to consult our staff.

Step 3

If you are interested in further information, the web page of the Swiss Center of North America, Swiss Genealogy "Swiss Roots", might be interesting for you (see link at the bottom of the page).

Emigration

In the 19th century, many people emigrated from Schaffhausen to North and South America, mostly due to the bad economic state they live in. e. Up until 1914, the canton issued travel documents, though many citizens left without them, thus leaving no trace of their departure. Therefore, it may well be that some people do not appear on any of the lists provided here.

One of the most important sources to check who emigrated is the passport books (Passbücher) (see downloads at the bottom of the page). From 1841 onwards, the names of those who emigrated were publicised in the official register (Amtsblatt) (see download at the bottom of the page). As previously mentioned, only those who officially gave notice of their departure were named, which is why the lists are not complete.

For a better understanding of the extent of the emigration in Schaffhausen, the government issued statistics from the communities of Schaffhausen. Many of these statistics can be found in the files of the government (Akten des Regierungsrates), which can be located in the archive's online catalogue.

The names of emigrants from Schaffhausen to the Brazilian city of Joinville are registered in the church registers of Joinville, which can be found on their website (see link at the bottom of the page). Furthermore, the archive of the City of Joinville has created a transcribed list of the passengers (see download at the bottom of the page).