Open a Swiss passport and instead of the usual birthplace it will show a citizen’s ‘place of origin’, where their ancestors and family names originate. Despite recent changes pairing down the system, this spot remains important for many people.
As a rule the Swiss inherit their place of origin from their fathers. The village, town or city stores the certificates of family origin when citizens leave; and it records births, marriages and deaths as the parish registers used to do.
Many Swiss remain emotionally attached to these physical roots, particularly those who live abroad.
“Many in my area have returned to Switzerland to find their roots,” said Beth Zurbuchen, president of the Swiss Center of North America. “I had the opportunity to explore my maternal grandfather’s farm and my paternal great-grandfather’s home of Habkern. To know I have family, no matter how distant, pulls at the heartstrings and brought tears to my eyes.”
After parliament decided at the end of 2012 to scrap the place of origin’s obligation to contribute to citizens’ welfare benefits, the registry duty is the only function left to this system. The home commune has lost so much in practical significance over the past years, that the country even stopped surveying them for the census.
In theory, the Swiss only have one origin, but in practice, they often waiver when asked about their home. “I always give my place of origin when asked where in Switzerland I am from,” explains Katharina Allen who lives in Perth, Canada. “My sister, on the other hand, names her birthplace and the place she lived in for a short time before moving to Canada as a child.”
Family ties
In 2001, parliament for the last time discussed replacing the origin with the birthplace for identification purposes. In the end, it was decided to stick to the status quo because as Walter Glur of the Swiss People’s Party argued the birthplace is too random, “birth could take place anywhere,” while the blood running in your veins is always your family’s. Many Swiss agree.
“My place of birth has no significance to me: My mother just happened to be in Zurich that day,” said Jack Gruring, a native of the town of Biel, now living in Croatia. “For me it is important where I grew up. And my place of origin is very significant because it stores my family’s history,” he wrote on the social media website swisscommunity.org.
Many Swiss can trace their family names back to their home towns. The Register of Swiss Surnames, which is run by the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, offers access to more than 48,000 entries of names, going back hundreds of years. The Chevrolets hail from a couple of dwellings in canton Jura and the Caillers from the shores of Lake Geneva.
“I’m very much attached to my origin because all my ancestors are buried there in a little cemetery in Cadro, my place of origin.” In everyday life, I never meet anybody with my family name,” said Manuelle Merenda who lives in Aix en Provence. “I was surprised to find that about half of the gravestones in that cemetery carried either the name Merenda or Ferrari.”
Every Zurbuchen originates in Habkern, a commune over 700 years old with a population of about 640 today. Andreas Zurbuchen, the village clerk, can trace back his family to Peter, the progenitor of the entire clan, who lived on a piece of land called zer Buchen (literally, next to the beech tree) between 1470 and 1535.
Back to their roots
Civil registry offices, cantonal archives and church records are the most important depositories for genealogical research into entire clans. And, because the community rolls were not destroyed during war, they are still very much complete, often going back beyond the 15th century.
“Although I don’t have a personal affinity with my place of origin, it is important from a historical perspective,” states Roland Isler, who lives in Melbourne. “It’s where all records of my family are being kept, regardless of where I and my extended family members live or have lived. If ever I want to research my family history, I know where to go.”
Many Swiss who emigrated in the past century, are still proud of being part of their origin’s nobility. Silverio Petrini moved to Venezuela 44 years ago from Comano. “We are one of the patrician families of Comano,” Petrini stated. “For me my place of origin has a lot of importance. I’m rooted there, and my parents are buried there.”
Those rights never came for free. From the beginning, citizens could be drafted by the sovereign to defend the land, and any new burgess had to buy himself into the commune. In return for conscription, the place of origin until recently, also had to financially support its citizens if they sunk into poverty.
This social duty is now being abandoned because of the financial burden on smaller rural communes, who often may count more citizens than residents. The obligation to bail out its impoverished burgess was also a strain on tight budgets in the 19th century. Some communes got rid of their paupers by offering to pay their Atlantic crossing for a waiver on citizenship.
Many accepted the offer, and settled in larger cities in North or South America or founded rural communes such as Highland, Gruetli or Bernstadt. More than 1.3 million people of Swiss descent live in the US and Canada today, according to the Swiss Center.
Many of the 400,000 Swiss, who emigrated between 1850 and 1914, founded colonies and – witness to their attachment to their roots – named them after their origins. Bern has 26 namesakes in the US, Lucerne has 16.
Zurbuchen says she feels lucky to have Swiss roots she was able to physically visit.
“When I stood in the exact spot where my ancestors had to take the decision to leave Switzerland so that the family could live on, I had the intensely personal feeling that this was where I belonged.”