Determining parents of 19th Century Swiss ancestor?

Question

I started getting into genealogy thanks to Ancestry.com and I have run into a brick wall. I am looking for the parents of Christopher Stukey (born somewhere between 1843 and 1848 in Switzerland) his wife is Cornelia Williams, born 1848. He eventually settled and died in Lewis County, NY. The area of Switzerland he was born in that I have found online was listed as "Lauraine, Switzerland" which I have looked for and can't seem to find anywhere. I am just very curious as to who his parents were and how far back I can find this, as this is where my last name, "Stukey" comes from. Any help would be appreciated greatly, thank you.

Here is (sadly) the most descriptive thing I have found as far as Lauraine... http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jonsaunders&id=I95888

Answer 1

1. I think your "Lauraine" is Lausanne, which is a city in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland. (There is also the French region of Lorraine, if someone's understanding of European geography was especially bad).

2. Stukey may not have been the original European spelling - Geogen doesn't find any matches in current German-language telephone directories. However Stuckey has a few matches. Looking at other variants (Stucke, Stucky), the name may have derived from the German plural word Stücke, meaning pieces. (Maybe an occupational surname of a wood-cutter?)

3. There are several questions at this StackExchange regarding research on Swiss ancestors. Also check the FamilySearch Wiki on Switzerland. Note that Lausanne is in the French-speaking region of Switzerland; your Stu[c]keys may not have lived there very long if they moved there from the German-speaking areas.

Answer 2

Your great grandparents were very probably named "Stucki", which is an extremely common family name here in Switzerland. They Anglicized their name in order to make it easier to communicate with people in an English-speaking environment.

It originates from the canton of Berne, but is also common in the canton of Vaud, because it was part of Berne until 1803 - at which point an enormous amount of people have Swiss-German family names even in the French speaking region.

You can find the list of municipalities where "Stucki" originates from on the site Das "Familiennamenbuch der Schweiz" but the list is long, as this name is extremely common.