Family Research

Are you interested in your family history or in family research?

The St. Gallen State Archive provides online access to the parish books from the Catholic and Reformed parishes in the canton, and from the civic registers (Bürgerregister) of the St. Gallen communities. Anyone interested in these can access the contents free of charge from the comfort of their own homes. Reading the traditional German “Kurrentschrift” script takes some practice. Searches are carried out independently by the customer. We can check individual details for you.

You can find the parish books and civic registers in the online archive catalogue. The descriptions there provide information about the original time period and content of the records. You can view the books on the platform via these links:

Parish books and civic registers with entries from the late 19th and the 20th century may contain personal data that needs to be protected. For this reason, they remain locked for online research until the protection period has expired. Microfilms of the parish books and the oldest civic registers can be viewed in the reading room of the State Archives with the appropriate authorization after signing a declaration regarding compliance with data protection regulations. Microfilm copies can be stored digitally. We recommend that you bring a USB stick. (Registration required – phone: +41 (0) 58 229 32 05)

You can order these documents in the reading room via the following links:

For genealogical information regarding the canton of St. Gallen, you can also see the following website: https://www.ghgo.ch/