Genealogical Dictionary of Early Records from the Districts of Aubonne and Morges, Canton Vaud, Switzerland
Data extracted from the earliest church registers and other sources
(Updated August, 2020 with records of about 16,800 individuals)
Access Index of Surnames
Access Index of Individuals
Communes now included in the database:
- Apples 1628-1660
- Aubonne 1629-1631
- Ballens 1567-1705
- Bière 1567-1705
- Essertines 1571-1608
- Gimel 1571-1608
- Mollens 1567-1705
- Mont-le-Grand 1571-1608
- Morges 1577-1602
- St. Livres 1599-1671
- St. Oyens 1571-1608
- Yens 1599-1663
- Buvelot family genealogies, mainly from Morges and Nyon
- Additional records on Fazan of Apples and Coendoz of Mollens
- Vullyamoz (Wllyamoz, Wullyamoz, Pont-Wullyamoz, etc.) of Lausanne
- (Click on commune names for notes about sources!)
The parish registers of the Eglise Reformé in the communes of the districts of Aubonne and Morges begin in many cases before 1600 and are available on microfilm at least through 1821. I have begun a systematic analysis of these records, supplemented where possible with data from notarial records and other sources, with the goal of reconstructing as many pedigrees as possible in this region.
The database contains genealogical information on as many of the people mentioned in these records as I have so far been able to decipher and assign to family groups. Users should be aware that many records, especially the earliest, are incomplete, illegible, or simply lost. Even where records appear physically intact, there are unexplained gaps, missing names and dates, and, occasionally, obvious errors due to carelessness. In the parish of Bière, a troublesome gap spans the years 1652-1670, resulting in a "lost generation" that affects most pedigrees. We are beginning to make some progress on this problem.
The distance from one village to the next is generally very short. The baptismal sponsors ("parrains" and "marraines") often come from neighboring villages. A thorough analysis of all records in the region would help to bridge the gap at Bière.
In some villages, there are additional records filmed with the registers: detailed death records beginning in the early 1700's, confirmation lists (some with ages or parentage), and records of the local consistory. These will be extracted at the appropriate time as the project progresses.
We offer these pedigrees with the caveat that they will undoubtedly contain errors. Before accepting a pedigree for your own family, you should certainly examine the original microfilmed records for yourself. If you have additional data on any of the families included in the database, please contact me so that I can make corrections or additions in the next revision. A new revision will be published here as each addition 1,000 records have been extracted.
I have included generally only those records that state a genealogical relationship between two or more people, with at least an approximate date. Isolated mentions of individuals who cannot be placed in a family are usually not included. I have connected each generation to the next when the data seem conclusive. A few records are excluded temporarily until such time as I can make a definite identification when, for example, there are two or more persons of the same name who were born about the same time, and it is not clear which one is intended in a marriage record. Especially at Morges, a large number of early marriages involve people from outside the immediate area; in such cases, the spelling of the names seems especially uncertain, and most of them have not yet been added to the database.
-- John W. McCoy