Gerichtlicher Beistand notifications in Swiss newspaper

Question

I just remembered Geneanet was free right now and decided to see if they had some records on my Swiss family.

I found a newspaper, the Walliser Bote, and some excerpts from the 1800s which seem to be lists of appointpoints of "gerichtlicher Beistand"s for various people. It seems this is some sort of legal council. But I have not seen before lists of appointments of legal councils for various people. I am wondering if most of these appointments would be made for a certain reason? What is the context I am missing here? Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

These newspaper clippings can also be seen, independently of Geneanet, at https://www.e-newspaperarchives.ch, which is a service of the Swiss National Library.

As far as I can tell, the appointments as "Gerichtlicher Beistand" are made by the "Waisenamt", or Orphans' Office. These appear to be persons appointed to asist widows and/or orphans in managing their affairs (as opposed to "Vormunder", who are full legal guardians).

Comments

Thank you for that. I guess maybe these were all announced in the papers so creditors would know who to come to? Thanks for the tip about the free newspapers!

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Hi Barry

I just saw your question now. I had a look at those newspapers from Canton Wallis. It seems, most appointments were made by the Orphans' Office - then they were made for a widow. These were the most cases I found. I also saw one appointment for a married couple - don't know why. And one for a man living in another Canton and his legal guardian became his son, also living in the same town. In this case it is mentioned that all "Gläubiger" (creditors) should send their claims during the following 42 days to the "Richterstatthalter" (I can't translate this properly, but it's not the legal guardian).

Hope this helps.

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Thanks. I’d been wondering if they were usually kin, and I’ve looked at enough of these now that I’m pretty convinced they generally weren’t.