I am research my family tree and was wondering if anyone knew of any good sites where I could research Swiss politicians of the 1800 - early 1900's.
I believe Giuseppe Motta, Swiss Federal Council (1911-1940) and President of the League of Nations (1924/1925) was a cousin of my Great Grandfather.
I also understand he came from a political family so his father could have been my Great Great Grandfather's brother (My GG Grandfather was a Brigadier Marshall in Italy). So I am trying to find out about any Motta's in the 1800's.
Thanks

if you are super interested in your family history come to switzerland and research. The records here are amazing! No wars, no destruction means that people can easily and accurately trace back their ancestry 100s of years! The archives here are very helpful in responding to your request (for a fee of course). Perhaps you can contact them from oversees too. Where does your family originally hail from (in Switzerland)?

From his name I would have guessed Ticino, and Wikipedia Giuseppe Motta confirms it (B. Airolo Dec. 29, 1871).

Geneaogy in CH is so easy, as each family as a Commune d'Origine, eg the original place where the family name was registered. All the birth, marriage, death, etc documents for each member of that family will be stored there. It has nothing to do with where you are born (although for some the birth and origin commune might still be the same). For instance I never visited mine until a few years ago- and yet all my documents are stored there, including the birth registration of my children born in the UK of a British father. So once you know your Commune d'origine, you have access to everything. Why not visit and discover it all in person?

Get in touch with

www.fondazionegiuseppemotta.ch
they should be able to help.

Here the list of all members of the Federal Government since 1848
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http://www.admin.ch/br/dokumentation...x.html?lang=de
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and here all Federal Presidents and all Federal Vice Presidents
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http://www.admin.ch/br/dokumentation...x.html?lang=de
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under www.parlament.ch you can search (above right) for all members of the two houses of parliament

Wow, I want to thank everyone for all the great info. As far as traveling to Switzerland, while it's been a few years since I was last there, my wife & I are expecting our 1st child within the next 2 weeks so I don't think I'll be traveling for a while (expect for work). Unfortunately last time i was there, I didn't know I had Swiss ancestors.
Again, thanks so much. This is a pretty exciting project and I am really enjoying the route of discovery.

The English and French versions of Wikipedia have little more than his dates plus his government posts, the Italian version (no surprise) has a slightly longer section (use Google Translate if you do not read Italian): Giuseppe Motta.

Interestingly, the German text is more extensive in highlighting his positions about Germany and about the Soviet Union
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Motta

even more details can be read under
http://www.hls-dhs-dss.ch/textes/d/D3524.php

Thank you to everyone that has replied to my post. I have learned quite a lot about Giuseppe Motta from Airolo but what I really would like is to learn about his ancestors.
I believe my Great Great Grandfather Giuseppe Motta of Italy was the Swiss Giuseppe's great Uncle. So I am really interested in finding information about the Swiss Giuseppe's father and grandfather. One of my cousins remember my Great Great Grandfather saying we had relatives in Switzerland that were into politics.
So, any ideas where I can look to follow the Swiss Giuseppe's family tree back a hundred or so years?
Thanks again.

Alright but here you have to see that Motta is almost the Italian equivalent to Smith in England. The most famous Motta enterprise of course is

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motta_%28azienda%29

As I can see, your next travel trip has to be to Milano-Malpensa (close to Varese) which may be the cradle-area of the Motta family in Lombardy-Ticino !