Switzerland, Vaud, Terrier Records, 1234-1798

What is in This Collection?

This collection includes digital images of terrier records from the Canton of Vaud for the years 1234-1798. The original records are now housed at the Archives Cantonales Vaudoises (ACV).

Additional records and/or images may be added to this collection in the future.

Reading These Records

These records are written in Latin and French. Before 1536, the records are mostly in Latin; after that year, they are mostly in French. For help reading them see:

• Latin Genealogical Word List
• French Genealogical Word List

These records contain many abbreviations. When a line is found over an "m", "n", or vowel, it usually means that an "m" or an "n" has been omitted. There are also shorthand symbols for syllables ending in r, and for common word endings, both in Latin and in French. Other passages in the same terrier will usually reveal the correct reading of the abbreviations.

When the clerks who compiled the terriers made a mistake, they normally did not cross out or erase the wrong word. Instead, they would usually mark the incorrect word by enclosing it in a box of dotted lines or by underlining it with a dotted line. They would then write the correct word immediately after. Some sentences might also include unique symbols; these indicate that a word, phrase, or passage is to be inserted at that point. The inserted material is usually found at the bottom of the page, marked by a matching symbol.

Browse This Collection

What Can These Records Tell Me?

The following information may be found in these records:

• The names of the present land holders as of a specific date. When there is more than one owner of a particular property, the relationships of the owners to each other are usually given. Names of spouses and fathers are often included
• The names of previous owners of the same properties. When the property has passed to the present owner through inheritance, or has been kept in the family by some other method, the relationship of the previous owners to the present owner is normally given, with the result that several generations of ancestry are often listed. Occasionally a reconnaissance will list 5 or 6 generations
• The names of adjacent property owners are usually found in the descriptions of the individual properties, often with additional genealogical information about them, too, such as names of fathers or spouses
• In the course of explaining how an individual came to own specific properties, marriage contracts, testaments, leases, and other legal documents are sometimes cited, with dates and the names of the notaries who recorded these instruments. With this information, it is sometimes possible to locate the original contracts. Most of the surviving registers of the notaries of Vaud are available on microfilm from the FamilySearch Library
• Marginal notations often list later owners of the same properties. These notations sometimes include enough genealogical information to connect the later owners with the parties listed in the reconnaissance
• Some family names in Vaud have changed over the centuries. Terriers that give extensive history of particular properties may include information about these changes

Collection Content

Sample Images

Click on images for a larger view.

• 

  1616 Land Record Example 1

• 

  1694 Land Record Example 2

• 

  1660 Land Record Example 3