The Parish Registers of the City of Schaffhausen
It was not until after the Reformation that births, marriages and deaths
were systematically recorded by the ministers. The Parish Registers of
Schaffhausen list births and marriages since 1540, whereas the register of
deaths starts as late as 1750. Until the 19th century the administration
of these registers was the responsibility of the respective pastor.
Therefore the entries vary in arrangement and detail. It is a special
feature of the Parish Registers of Schaffhausen, that the early entries of
births or baptisms up to 1684 only list the child’s name, the father and
the godparents. The mother’s names are recorded since 1685. It was not
before 1811 that the council enacted regulations for the keeping of the
registers. After that date the chaplains acted as official registrars for
church and council alike until in 1874 finally the Swiss Confederation
issued a standardized law regarding the civil registers. After that date
the registry office was responsible for the registration of births,
marriages and deaths and the old Parish Registers were municipalized.
Principal
Parish Registers available
Schaffhausen:
- Births, Baptisms from 1540
- Marriages from 1540
- Deaths from 1750
Buchthalen:
- Births, Baptisms from 1615
- Marriages from 1794
- Deaths from 1794
Herblingen:
- Births, Baptisms from 1681
- Marriages from 1746
- Deaths from 1772
Genealogical aids
In 1866 the historian Hans Wilhelm Harder transcribed the city’s
oldest tax register of 1392 and listed the family names. To that list he
added the names of people who obtained citizenship between 1400 and 1830.
This became possible due to a large number of old municipal account-books
that had been preserved since 1396. The series of these account books is
fairly complete in the 15th century and from 1679/1680 onward. Substantial
gaps, however, exist in the second half of the 16th century and between
1620 to 1670. Harder’s transcription is a very useful and important tool
for genealogists although an unknown number of new citizens remain
undiscovered.
The Schaffhausen chronicler J. J. Rüeger was the first to establish
genealogical trees for certain families which where published in his “Chronik
von Stadt und Landschaft Schaffhausen”. These genealogies, however, only
covered the city’s nobility. About 1740 Johann Ludwig Bartenschlager
started to collect data for a set of genealogical registers covering all
families that were citizens of Schaffhausen at that time. He utilized the
available sources, mainly the Parish Registers, and added further
information regarding residence, profession and career if it was
accessible. Each genealogy was adorned with the family’s coat of arms.
Bartenschlager finished his work 1744 and collected the files in 10
volumes. He continued and amended the genealogies until 1770. After his
death Adam Bäschlin and others maintained the work. But work on the
genealogies stopped about 1790, and they were not updated for the next 40
years. After 1830 Schaffhausen councilman J. J. Veith took up the project
and completed the volumes. His successor, the historian Hans Wilhelm
Harder, sold the volumes to the municipality and was in charge of the
registers until his death in 1872. He not only complemented the existing
genealogies but started a new series of 12 further volumes which comprised
216 families. After his death various registrars continued the genealogies
which were deposited in the civic registry office until they finally found
their way into the municipal archives.
We have published online the names of the families included in this
records along with their coats-of-arms. You will find larger pictures of
the arms if you click on the thumbnails. It is however impossible to make
the whole contents of the books available online. If you want to find out
about your ancestors you are invited to use our e-mail form.
The civic registry office was established after the Swiss Confederation
had issued a standardized law regarding the civil registers in 1874. From
1876-1949 these registers basically formed the sequel to the Genealogical
Registers. An individual booklet was kept for each family. For old
families there are references to the Bartenschlager/Harder volumes, new
volumes were created when a family or individual obtained citizenship. As
these volumes contain relatively recent data, they are not accessible for
public use. Access is only possible within the legal regulations and laws
for the protection of data privacy. However, we have published an
online-list of all the names of citizens included in the civil registers.
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