Origins of name VAUCHER

## Important References

### Forebears Directory ( LINK ):

This shows that most Vauchers are to be found in Switzerland and France. Whereas the French stayed put; famines and lack of opportunity a few centuries ago, drove many Swiss to emigrate to the Americas. About all Vauchers found in the US and South America came originally from Neuchâtel. The name is most common in Switzerland, then Uruguay.

- Switzerland: 1,822
- France: 1,210
- Uruguay: 237
- USA: 108
- Brazil: 91
- Argentina: 36

### Mormons

The Mormon Church in Utah has put tremendous energy into collecting genealogical records from around the World.
As I understand it, is that Mormons believe that the dead can only enter Heaven if they have been formally inducted into the Church. Genealogical research allows members to identify ancestors and baptise them so families can be together in the afterlife.

Based in Salt Lake City, you find: Ancestry.com and the FamilySearch Library. In particular the Brigham Young University has produced this remarkable document:

- Resources for Genealogy Research in Switzerland (BYU, 153 p.) : Switzerland.pdf
- Local copy

### Brief History

Switzerland is a confederation of twenty cantons and six half-cantons. (See appendix A for a list of the cantons.) The region was without political unity until 1291, when the three forest cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden signed the Perpetual Cov- enant, a solemn pledge of mutual support and de- fense against the House of Habsburg. This agreement laid the foundation for the confederation, which expanded to a league of eight cantons in 1353. The Swiss won virtual independence in 1499 by defeating the Imperial forces in the Swabian war, but their independence from the Holy Roman Empire was not formally recognized until 1648. In 1815 and again in 1848 federal pacts confirmed the equal status of all the cantons. Switzerland played a central role in the Protestant Reformation, which resulted in four religious wars between 1529 and 1712. The constitutions of 1848 and 1874 guaranteed religious freedom. Today the country is 49 percent Roman Catholic and 48 percent Protestant (Zwinglian and Calvinist).

The internationally feared military power of the Confederation, the commerce and customs privileges enjoyed in neighboring countries and her growing prosperity allowed that self-assurance to grow continually from the 15th to the 18th century. Because of this, the citizenship for the confederated areas (cantons) became more valuable all the time. In the middle of the 16th century towns and villages started to control immigration and made it increasingly difficult to obtain citizenship. Finally, about the middle of the 17th century, it was entirely stopped, and new admissions became rare. This self-assurance together with the rarity of citizenShip, created an ideal medium for fostering genealogy.

Even the family names, without which genealogy is not entirely impossible, but would be an extremely difficult undertaking, are based on this clan pride (self-assurance). The nobility of one area started to carry regular family names during the 12th century. They were taken from the names of the castles where these noble families resided, as for example "von Kyburg" (Canton Zurich), "von Habsburg", "von Lenzburg" (Canton Aargaul. etc. Before then, high and low were called by their first name, and there evidently was not that clear concept of family and clan which expresses itself in a family name.

During the 12th century,cognomens and names of occupations appeared as an addition to the given name of town and country people, but these names changed often and it was long before they became fixed family names. In regard to the urban upper classes, these being wealthy people holding public office, such surnames started to become fixed family names during the 13th and 14th centuries. This process was completed at different times for the lower classes, the carftsmen, the poor and the peasants. The development was practically finished around 1500. During the 16th century, church and state, for order and control, finally established family names in their registers as labels of family relationship.

While the genealogy of nobility starts during the 12th century and earlier, with such as pedigree charts; family chronicles, etc.; the first traces of genealogy of the burghers of the cities and states appear during the 15th century. Such families that were part of the “regiment” (administration), cultivated their family history. This activity received special stimulus during the 16th century, carried on through the 17th century and reached its peak in the 18th century before the fall of the old Confederation (through the interference of the French Revolution in 1798).

#### Neuchâtel

A county, then sovereign principality belonging to the House of Neuch~telfrom 1125 to 1395; then in succession, to the Houses of Fribourg-in·Brisgau and Baden-Hochberg, and finally in 1504 to the House of d'Orleans-Longuevilie which became extinct in 1707. The Three-State Court assigned then the Principality of Neuchâtel to the House of Prussia, a far removed sovereign. In 1806 Napoleon offered it to Prince Alexandre Berthier, his marshall. In 1814, it went back to the House of Prussia until 1848, when the Republic was proclaimed. In 1814, Neuchâtel was admitted into the Swiss Confederation as the 21st canton, while still remaining a principality.