Stüssi Family History - Research Notes and Links


Back to home page / zurück
Hard Sources:
  1. Personal Archives of Jan Stussy: He sought out and manually compiled information about his Stüssi Family branch that came from Niederurnen, Glarus, Switzerland in 1873 to Kansas, USA. His information contained all known descendents as of about 1970 (Compiled 1963-1973). I have updated this information from my personal knowledge (and other sources) where possible. A copy was supposedly sent to the Glarner Archives in 1974.  I have updated the Town of Niederurnen archives in 2006.
  2. Archive extract from Glarus, Switzerland: Jan Stussy obtained the archive extract in July 1963, courtesy of the Niederurnen village secretary, Mr. Jakob Steinmann. The research was performed by the county's archivist, Dr. J. Winteler of Glarus (village, not Canton). The cover letter also indicates several second and third [degree] cousins that still live in in the area.
  3. A letter from Mr. Jakob Elmer (second, above) dated November 1964, after Jan Stussy's visit to Switzerland, thanking him and indicating approximate count of various families living in Niederurnen:
    • Schlisser - 60 families
    • Steinmann - 50
    • Stüssi - 40      <=
    • Hertach -20
    • Joss - 18
    • Oswald - 12
    • Ennes - 8
    • Simon - 5
    • Winkler - 5
Internet Sources:

When it came to search the Internet, I decided that perhaps the best manner to procede in was to gather all the information that I could and then, after having explored each source, see how these pieces fit.  Many of these are frequently checked for updates.

  1. U.S. Social Security Death Index - through March 31, 2007
  2. U.S. Telephone Number Listings - through June 30, 2006
  3. State of California Birth Index - 1905 (July) to 1995
  4. State of California Death Index - 1947 to 1995
  5. Various public internet genealogy sites (detailed below)
  6. Some personal genealogy sites found by search engines (also below)
  7. Other sources found via the common search engines.
Ancestry.Com: I have located several GEDCOM formatted files which have lead somewhere on one or more lineages. Only one such file involved a spouse of my direct lineage. It contained errors.

RootsWeb.com: This site was used to access the above named databases and occasionally, it turned up a reference to a relative. This researcher has used their RSL file to indicate his interest - and these entries constitute the only publicly accessible information other than at this site authorized by the family; public government databases notwithstanding.

From Swiss.Genealogy@bigfoot.com: This E-mail server indicated four published sources and extracts. Where appropriate, the information has already been incorporated into this site's main page. A large portion of the information obtained from these sources was duplicative of the research provided directly from the county archives in Glarus and did not provide any major leads (only some minor additional facts and the supplemental migration list). [The link is to the web page which handles the server's requests.]

The Mormon Church (Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints): One of the missions of the church is to keep genealogical records. I have gone through some of their on-line records, mainly GEDCOM's; after all, they developed the interchange protocol. Those records will be merged in here as links (ancestors) are discovered. Their records had the following as of May 2000:

On October 24, 2000, I performed a secondary extract from their databases using a set of programs that recursively proceded across each lineage, be it parent to child, child to parent, or ancestors of spouses. Although this didn't turn up much on the Stüssi surname, it greatly expanded a lineage on my mother's side into Colonial New England (including the "CHARTER" towns of Massachusetts). A visit to their local Family History Library did not yield anything significant. As it turns out, most of the materials regarding the Stüssi lineages are restricted to their main library at Salt Lake City, UT (USA).

When the LDS Church moved to their IGI version 5 in January 2003, many earlier errors were corrected. However, some may still exist in the data.

1885 Lincoln County, Kansas Census: This page identifies my direct ancestor who emigrated from Switzerland and part of his family. If your research leads you to this, and you know that you are one of his descendants, STOP: you are duplicating work that I have already compiled. Contact me instead.

Personal Contacts:

The Sites of Mr. Louis Gruntz Jr.: He seems to have a lot of Stüssi's in his family tree as well (over 180). He has three sites, but last I heard, not all sites are simultaneously up to date. Effective July 1, 2002, my database includes a full copy of his database (with many duplicates already reconciled but some still remaining) as of 23 December 2000. We have overlapping ancestors under other surnames. His database contained in excess of 25,000 individuals.

Mr. Kaz Glista: He has provided me with a copy of what his wife (a direct Stüssi von Glarus-stadt descendant) and he copied from the Archives in Glarus when visiting. His data is also now incorporated into my database. Although his wife and I share some ancestors, his Stüssi line is not ancestral to either of mine (I have two ancestral lines).

I have also made contact with several of my American Stussy cousins and have updated my database to reflect information provided by them regarding our post-immigration family tree. Once or twice, I've also come across relatives of one of the other Stussy families in America and have likewise collected some information from them which I use mainly to exclude them from my family tree. In other cases, I have information about the lines of other spellings that sourced from the same line as mine was in Switzerland but had a different immigrant family.

In 2005, I made contact with a distant cousin still living in Switzerland who was willing and since has performed some lookups in the original Town of Niederurnen records, and to a much lesser extent, the Glarner County records in the Village of Glarus. There is another update cycle planned for late 2007.

The archive information only seems to have recorded information on branches through about 1930, and ignores emigrations outside Switzerland.  Here's some of the other moves that I have detected:

Year   To From
1887 Zürich, Zürich Regensdorf, Zürich
1890 Zürich, Zürich Regensdorf, Zürich
1901 Wetzikon, Zürich ?
1909 Wädenswwil, Zürich Glarus, Glarus
1910 Glarus, Glarus Riedern, Glarus
1918 Hätzingen, Glarus Haslen, Glarus
1922 Glarus, Glarus Riedern, Glarus
1930 Winterthur, Zürich Niederurnen, Glarus
1935 Langnau im Emmental, Bern ?
1939 Zürich, Zürich Hofstetten bei Elgg, Zürich
1939 Zürich, Zürich Linthal, Glarus
1942 Winterthur, Zürich Riedern, Glarus
1945 Zürich, Zürich Riedern, Glarus
1946 Ennenda, Glarus Riedern, Glarus
1946 Zürich, Zürich Riedern, Glarus
1948 Zürich, Zürich Haslen, Glarus
1951 Zürich, Zürich Haslen, Glarus
1952 Zürich, Zürich Riedern, Glarus
1953 Zürich, Zürich Riedern, Glarus
1957 Glarus, Glarus Linthal, Glarus
1959 Zürich, Zürich Maur, Zürich
1960 Zürich, Zürich Linthal, Glarus
1961 Basel, Basel Linthal, Glarus
This page last revised on 2007/08/20.
Counter