the Vatican Swiss Guard

MaryMumsy · Jul 7, 2017

Somewhat of an odd question.

The obituary for my GG grandfather says that he served in the Swiss Guard under Pope (somebody, I don't have the papers in front of me). That would be cool, but....Pope ? didn't become Pope until a number of years after GG grandpa emigrated to the US and got married. None of the assorted cousins I have been in touch with have any info other than the obituary that was printed in the newspaper, circa 1905.

Any ideas on how I could see if they maintained a roster way back when? This would have been sometime between 1865-1875.

MM

Cyia · Jul 7, 2017

Try contacting them from their website: http://www.guardiasvizzera.va/content/guardiasvizzera/en.html

AW Admin · Jul 7, 2017

MaryMumsy said:
Somewhat of an odd question.

The obituary for my GG grandfather says that he served in the Swiss Guard under Pope (somebody, I don't have the papers in front of me). That would be cool, but....Pope ? didn't become Pope until a number of years after GG grandpa emigrated to the US and got married. None of the assorted cousins I have been in touch with have any info other than the obituary that was printed in the newspaper, circa 1905.

Any ideas on how I could see if they maintained a roster way back when? This would have been sometime between 1865-1875.

MM

Was he Swiss? You have to be Swiss, and Catholic.

MaryMumsy · Jul 7, 2017

He was absolutely Catholic. Swiss, maybe, maybe not. I have seen family references to Lorraine, and to Germany. I know he spoke German. I think this was someone in the family (my GG grandmother?) embellishing the truth.

MM

lonestarlibrarian · Jul 8, 2017

All Swiss Guards are pulled from the Swiss Army, so in theory, there should be Swiss Army records documenting your grandfather's service prior to his Swiss Guard service.

frimble3 · Jul 8, 2017

As for the German connection, Switzerland shares a border with Germany and German is one of the official Swiss languages, I believe. I'm sure there were lots of families that had members on both sides of the line, visited back and forth, etc. Keep looking.

ablurryfigure · Sep 5, 2017

I went to the Vatican (I'm not religious in anyway.) I went to it as a part of a holiday to Rome and saw the guard, we were on the tour bus when I saw the guard salute one of the priests, was quite neat, although their uniform is a bit erm colourful.

the Vatican Swiss Guard

MaryMumsy

the original blond bombshell

Cyia

Rewriting My Destiny

AW Admin

MaryMumsy

the original blond bombshell

lonestarlibrarian

senior bean supervisor

frimble3

Heckuva good sport

ablurryfigure

Hiding in the background