Swiss Surnames: A Complete Register (3 Volume Set) (German Edition)

3 vols: 768pp, 704pp. & 640pp. 1995 (1989).

For an impressive 55 years Familiennamenbuch der Schweiz has dominated the landscape of Swiss genealogical research like a benevolent giant. First published in two volumes in 1940, at a time when a turbulent world made the importance of being Swiss self-evident, Familiennamenbuch was next published in a six volume edition in 1969 and then in a final three volume edition in 1989. It is the newest, final, edition which we have reprinted as the American edition, complete with a new Preface on Swiss genealogy and on the importance of Familiennamenbuch by Lewis Bunker Rohrbach, CG.

These volumes contain every surname now found in Switzerland, a total of 48,500 surnames arranged alphabetically, together with information giving exactly in which Heimat or community the surnames enjoy hereditary rights of citizenship. Roughly half of these surnames were established in Switzerland prior to 1800 (often in the Middle Ages); the other 24,500 surnames have settled in Switzerland since 1800.

This is a major publishing event for Swiss genealogy!

In all cases you are told the period (and in a great many cases the exact year) when the surname entered the community as well as, for later immigrants, the manner (by marriage; immigration from another Swiss community; immigration from a specified country; adoption; etc.). Thus what you have here is a complete census of and location for all Swiss Geschlecht or surname clans - the foundation of all Swiss genealogy.

Never before has Familiennamenbuch been published in America or available in an English edition. In past decades even the Swiss edition has been virtually unobtainable and, at 400 Swiss Francs (= $340.00!) plus shipping, far too expensive for most American researchers. With the new Picton Press edition there is now every reason to own your own set, and at half the price!

Text: German