Sources and research aids: in the 19th century

General

• Search the archival catalogue for the respective names. However, our records are not always fully indexed, a hit is therefore a matter of luck.
• Search the protocol of the ‘Small Council’ in the register of persons for the respective names (copies of said protocols can be found on the first floor of our reference library)
• Search the yearly and alphabetic registers of the cantonal magazines (library reference number J.a 1). Specific references to emigrants are given with key words such as 
  - ‘Erbennachsuchungen’ (search for successors and beneficiaries of people who died abroad), 
  - ‘Verschollenerklärungen’ (declaration of missing persons), 
  - announcements and publications from other cantonal agencies,
  - the respective names in the registry
• Passport register: unfortunately, the passport registers of the 19^th century are only passed on with great temporal and regional gaps.

• Search the archival tectonics for further documents on emigration (first half of the 19^th century AKT 24/59-60 and second half AKT 34/106-107) or more generally on exchanges with other countries and states (tectonics below first half of the 19^th century AKT 21/176 and second half AKT 31/275)
• Search the archival catalogue for key words such as ‘Auswanderer’ (emigrants) or ‘Auswanderung’ (emigration)

Foreign military service

A large number of persons served as mercenaries in foreign military (see article on foreign military service in the Swiss Historical Lexicon)

• An extensively edited list of names (ca. 2000 names) of the 1805-1815 forced military services exists:
  Müller, Cornelius, Men from Lucerne in French military service under emperor Napoleon I, 1805-1815 (library reference number E.z.304)
• Consult the list on ‘military persons and mercenaries in Lucerne records of deaths, 1585-1858’ for persons whose deaths were reported back to Lucerne (ca. 1800 names, list according to names, list according to places of origin, list according to places of Service)
• Search the archival tectonics for further records on foreign military Service (AKT 23)

Merchants, contractors and journeymen

They left their places of residence for longer and shorter periods.

Examples

• The Lucerne emigration to Nova Friburgo in Brazil, 1819, with an index of names, several letters etc.
• Transcript in our collections of source examples
  - letter by the emigrant Anton Unternährer, Chicago, 1847
  - letter by the emigrant Josef Unternährer to his siblings, Wheeling, 1871
  - letter by the emigrant Josef Schnider from Flühli, 1898

• Stefan Jäggi, Briefe eines Entlebuchers aus Nordamerika, 1882-1901, in: Blätter für Heimatkunde aus dem Entlebuch 62 (1995), S. 5-18
• Hans Marti, Briefe des Südamerika-Auswanderers Johann Schwegler von Altishofen, in: Der Hinterländer. Heimatkundliche Beilage des Willisauer Boten, 1988, Nr. 1-3.
• Hans Marti, Alois Hunkeler von Buttenberg Schötz - der erfolgreiche Amerika Auswanderer, in: Der Hinterländer. Heimatkundliche Beilage des Willisauer Boten, 1991, Nr. 3-4.