Genealogy tours and family research
Welcome to my genealogy site. On this page (current home page of Genealogy Tours) I introduce a little of my own family’s experience of migration and a few of the genealogy tours that I have recently completed. If you feel inspired to also explore your own genealogy and the areas from which forebears came – here’s how ! I look forward to hearing from you.
1: First steps:
As a first step on your genealogy journey, please send me a brief e-mail outlining what you know and what you do not yet know about your family connections to Switzerland:
What would you particularly like to know and to see ?
I will read it and suggest times that we can call.
In this first call I will introduce myself and my work – helping individuals, families and communities find out more about their ancestry and often guiding them on tours of the areas their forebears came from – including historical information on the places we visit.
We will agree on a fee for a set number of hours of my time (normally 10 to 20 hours) and on a time frame within which I can:
- personally look into local records of named individuals,
- reconnaissance the area (to establish, for instance, which houses, institutions are still standing)
- perhaps recommend potential tour possibilities
- and/or perhaps also suggest possible directions for further research.
2: First results:
Then I will write to you briefly outlining how far I have been able to get and we can arrange a second call to discuss:
what kind of tour might make sense for you – depending eg. on how big an area is covered, how remote that area is (accessibility),
which stops are deemed essential
as well as possibly further research as required.
Swiss emigration
Since the 1800s, hundreds of thousands of Swiss have emigrated to the new worlds. From 1800 to 1910, over 300,000 people left their Swiss homeland to seek their fortune in North America.
As can be seen from the photo above, family members of my mother (Wettstein-Pfister) also emigrated from Fällanden, Canton Zurich, Switzerland to New York, USA, during this time.
Genealogy Tour in the Canton of Glarus, Switzerland
A link to a local TV report about the Streiff family from New Glarus, USA, who had come searching for signs of their forebears in Glarnerland, Switzerland.
Matt Streiff first contacted me some 3 months ago asking specifically whether I could locate the homes of his ancestors Joshua Wild and Mathias Schmid.
After much internet research, several visits to Canton Glarus and with the support of several dedicated people from Glarnerland, I finally found the houses where they had lived, before they migrated to the USA.
Joshua Wild and Mathias Schmid were among the first settlers from Glarnerland who founded New Glarus in Wisconsin in 1845.
I was also able to introduce Matt Streiff to his cousin: Rudolf Herrmann from Schwanden.
Newspaper articles about Genealogy Tours with Erwin Tours of Switzerland:
Below are 2 newspaper articles about two US families who rediscovered their ancestors and roots in Switzerland.
(The text is in German and can be translated to English with common online portals)
“These American women are searching for their roots” – 20 Minuten, P. Michel
In the immigrant country of the USA, the search for one’s own origins is booming. Rachael and Marybeth from Illinois are also tracing their ancestors in Mels SG.
Rendez-vous mit der Vergangenheit – Migros Magazin – Andrea Freiermuth
“Rendez-vous with the past” – Migros Magazin, Andrea Freiermuth
Ancestor tourism is the trend. The Americans Laurie Burke and Sue Voss also want to get to know the homeland of their ancestors. In the mountain village of Mathon in Graubünden, they meet the siblings Peter and Susanne Janett, to whom they are related through many corners.
