Adolf Ramseyer (1913–1969): the Swiss Ramseyer researcher

The Ramseyer Family Record (2002) credits its Swiss research to “the police officer, Adolph Ramseyer, in Switzerland with the hobby of researching Ramseyers” (foreword, p. VI, Ramseyer Family Record 2002 - front matter (pp. IV-VIII)). Christopher asked on 2026-11-07 who he was, when he did the work and what he found.

Short answer.

• He was Adolf Ramseyer (1913–1969), a senior police officer in Basel.
• He researched the Ramseyer families of the Emmental from about 1940 until his death in 1969.
• His whole research collection survives: five metres of it, in the Bern State Archives (Nachlass Adolf Ramseyer, shelfmark N Ramseyer). It was given in 1994 by Gaby Ramseyer of Basel.
• It has not been digitized. Seeing it means a visit to the archive reading room in Bern.

Who he was

Born	17 Feb 1913, Binningen (Basel-Land)
Died	6 Jun 1969, Basel, aged 56
Citizen of	Bowil (Emmental, next to Signau), and of Basel from 1934
Career	joined the Basel police in 1936. Head of the traffic department from about 1947, where he introduced traffic education and Basel’s first children’s traffic garden. Promoted to major, and police inspector (commander of the Basel cantonal police) 1967–69
Other writing	”Die Entwicklung der Polizei in der Schweiz” (1947); Fragmente zur geschichtlichen Entwicklung des Basler Polizeiwesens (1955 festschrift); papers on police and army sport 1939–47 (Basel State Archives, PD-REG 4e)
Family history	gave a lecture to the Historischer Verein (historical society) in 1964; travelled to Portugal and Angola in 1965

Sources:

• Bern State Archives catalogue, N Ramseyer (birth, death, citizenship, “former police officer in Basel”).
• Basel State Archives, PD-REG 4e and the Basel digital reading room entry on the cantonal police traffic department (career details, from search summaries; the Basel pages would not load in a script or the browser pane).
• The Swiss National Library keeps a newspaper-clippings file on him, 1947–1969: Biokat, Ramseyer Adolf. Its dates fit his career and death.

Not to be confused with: Adolf Ramseyer (1883–1951), an FC Basel footballer (Wikipedia).

When the family used his work

• His research runs from about 1940 to 1969.
• Edna Ramseyer Kaufman compiled the Family Record over 50 years and travelled in Europe for it. So her contact with him must have been before June 1969, probably in the 1950s or 1960s.
• The exact dates are not known yet. His correspondence file (N Ramseyer 10) may hold her letters.

What he came up with: the contents of his papers

Bern State Archives, N Ramseyer: “genealogical works, mainly about bearers of the name Ramseyer”, about 1940–1970, 5 metres.

I. Texts, mostly on the history of the Ramseyer family, with newspaper reports and pictures

File	Contents
N Ramseyer 1	Introduction; “Das Emmental”; correspondence and press on his 1964 Historischer Verein lecture; diary of a trip to Portugal, Luanda and Angola (1965); notes on the Hepp family
N Ramseyer 2	Notes by keyword A–Z, mostly on the Ramseyers’ places of citizenship
N Ramseyer 3	Iseli of Jegenstorf; Wüthrich of Trub; Ramseyer of Signau, Grosshöchstetten, Uttigen, Zäziwil
N Ramseyer 4	the “Ramseyer-Lied” (a Ramseyer song); Moser of Bowil, Zäziwil, Röthenbach; Dubach of Eggiwil; Ramseyer of Heimiswil, Langnau, Rüderswil and Rüegsau; Grogg am Wald
N Ramseyer 5	Ramseyer of Trub, Mirchel and Grosshöchstetten
N Ramseyer 6	Ramseyer of Bowil and Lauperswil
N Ramseyer 7	Ramseyer of Eggiwil (Anabaptists) and Schlosswil
N Ramseyer 8	”Das Ramseyerloch in Bern”; a New Year’s message of 1775; Ramseyer of Lützelflüh; private letters, clippings and pictures
N Ramseyer 9	unworked material; letters; “Registre de l’Église de Montbéliard” (typed copies)
N Ramseyer 10	correspondence
N Ramseyer 11	Das Geschlecht Ramseyer aus dem Emmental (fair copies)
N Ramseyer 12	Ramseyer of Eggiwil, fair copy
N Ramseyer 13	Ramseyer of Lauperswil, Heimiswil and Hasle bei Burgdorf, fair copy
N Ramseyer 14	Ramseyer of Rüegsau, fair copy
N Ramseyer 15	Ramseyer of Lauperswil, Schlosswil and Grosshöchstetten, fair copy
N Ramseyer 16	Ramseyer of Lützelflüh and Bowil, a specially worked-up fair copy
N Ramseyer 17	Ramseyer of Mirchel and Signau, fair copy
N Ramseyer 18	photographs of Adolf Ramseyer’s life and family
N Ramseyer 19	family tree of the Ramseyer families, as a large roll

II. Card indexes

• Cards by first name: all Ramseyers.
• Cards of people who married Ramseyers.
• Cards by first name of the Ramseyers of Eggiwil, with their spouses by surname.
• Cards by place, by author of printed sources, and by other sources.

Why it matters for this tree

1. It is almost certainly the source of the early Swiss line in the Family Record: Peter (Signau, c.1535) → Ludwig (1568) → Hans (1594) → Ulrich (1640) → Christian Ramseyer (bapt. 1672), of Eggiwil. Staker’s Tazewell County chapter gives the same line, probably from the same source (Ramseyer Family Record 2002 - cross-reference and wish list). The parish registers now downloaded can check his work line by line.
2. File 7, “Ramseyer of Eggiwil (Anabaptists)”, and the separate Eggiwil card index are exactly the branch the family descends from.
3. File 9, the Montbéliard church register copies, covers the French stage of the line: Isaac Ramseyer (c.1747–after 1817) and Johannes Ramseyer (1780–1853) in the Montbéliard and Doubs country before the 1835 voyage.
4. The card index of people who married Ramseyers is the place to look for the wives’ families: Barbara Stauffer (17th c.), Christina Gosteli and others.
5. The roll family tree (file 19) would show how he connected the Emmental branches, including whether the Eggiwil Anabaptists link to Bowil, Signau or Lauperswil.

Also in the Bern State Archives

• N R. Ramseyer: papers of Rudolf J. Ramseyer (1923–2007), 2 metres. He was a Bern linguist and folklorist, an honorary professor at the University of Bern, and wrote a 1959 dissertation on the old Bernese Küher (travelling cowherds). These are his scholarly papers, not genealogy, but his work on Bernese place names and the Küher life is useful background (catalogue).

Next steps

• Visit or order from the Bern State Archives reading room (Falkenplatz 4, Bern). Ask for N Ramseyer 7, 12, 9, 10 and 19, and the Eggiwil card index. Ask whether copies or photography for private research are allowed task/human
• Ask the archive by e-mail (staatsarchiv@be.ch; check the address on the archive’s website) whether the Eggiwil fair copy (N Ramseyer 12) can be scanned to order, and the cost task/human
• Check Edna’s papers (Mennonite Church Canada Archives, “Edna Ramseyer Kaufman papers”; Bluffton) for letters from Adolf Ramseyer. The archive site is behind a bot check task/human
• Compare the Family Record’s early line with the downloaded Signau, Lauperswil and Eggiwil registers (part of the register study) task/ai

Record compiled 7 November 2026.

About this research

Supporting documentation is linked throughout. This project is an exercise in AI-assisted research and development, and I haven’t manually verified every link or conclusion. All transcriptions and translations of Swiss parish records were made with AI, and their accuracy should be treated accordingly.