Hello everyone,
I was born in the USA to a Swiss mother. My grandparents are also Swiss. My great-grandfather emigrated from Switzerland to Brazil -- while he stayed in Brazil to raise his family, his parents and siblings returned to Switzerland. We have lost contact with our family that returned.
My mother and grandparents have always been proud of our Swiss heritage, but it wasn't until I had kids of my own that I've been even more interested in our family history. I had the opportunity to visit Switzerland last summer and the town where our family came from (Rieden, St. Gallen).
I am trying to find out what happened to our relatives that returned to Switzerland and am active in family history research/genealogy. I plan on returning to Switzerland often and hopefully I can make contact with relatives someday.
I live in Alaska, USA and am a pediatric dentist. I look forward to learning more about Switzerland and connecting to others that live there. I speak English, Italian, and just a little German.
Best regards,
Chris
Hi Chris, thank you for your very nice intro and welcome to the gang.
I'm an oral surgeon, mostly living in Switzerland but more and more also in the northeastern Midwest of the USA, where my OH is from. Although my Swiss residence is only 20 miles from Rieden, I had to google-map it because it's so small. But it sure is a nice place with a great view over the Linth Valley.
I think the Riedeners would have laughing fits if they knew that you called their little village a town. In Switzerland, a town is a settlement with at least 10,000 inhabitants. Yes I know, that's totally different in the USA. There are "Cities" in the Midwest that would be called hamlets over here. I'm telling you this just to make sure you won't get funny looks the next time you visit Rieden. Granted, other EFers may call it Swiss pedantry, but who cares...
In most cases it is fairly easy to track down relatives in Switzerland because there is a strict registry system of residents on municipality level. There are forum threads that cover the topic. Especially if the last name of those re-patriates isn't an extremely common one and you have an idea around what year they got back to Switzerland, the probability for you to find their descendants is fairly high.
Good luck.
so you're half swiss german but speak Italian? I guess you also have the obligatory irish heritage lol
I suggest this website: http://www.hls-dhs-dss.ch/famn/?lg=i
if your family was known, I'm sure you'll find some info about your origins or family history on this website, just insert your surname and look at the documents, D F I indicate the language, click on the crosses to open it in that language (if available).
Rieden is a village btw
Thank you everyone for your welcome and advice about family history research.
I will search the forums about family history/genealogy.
My family's name is Brunner, and we do not know where they settled after returning from Brazil. With such a common name, I think my search may not be an easy one.
I am planning on visiting the village of Rieden again next year and doing more family research. Hopefully I can find something.
Thank you and best regards
Many Swiss have a place of origin (Heimatort) which is totally unrelated to the family's recent generation(s). My husband's heimatort* is some minuscule village in the French part but his French is pretty non-existent as the family since his grandparents has lived over in the Swiss-German part.
I'm guessing this is the case with the OP.
*Having said that, we officially changed our heimatort to Zurich after our son was born so I guess we will totally confuse any future genealogists in the family in a few generations .
You may, directly per forum or per PM transmit the family name and
the name of the closest name you know and the
Heimatort/place-of-registration)