Uerkheim Parish, Aargau, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Uerkheim Parish, Aargau, Switzerland, ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, parish census, civil census, family history, area history, and military records.



Geography
The municipality of Uerkheim is in the district of Zofingen in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. It is a village in the lower Uerkental, which also extends into side valleys and consists of several hamlets. The municipality of Uerkheim was considering a merger on 1 January 2014 into Zofingen.

Uerkheim (as of 2009) has an area of 7.1 km² (2.7 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 48.0% - agricultural purposes
 * 40.3% - forested
 * 11.1% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 0.1% - either rivers or lakes
 * 0.1% - non-productive

History
In 924, Uerkheim was first mentioned by the name of Urtihun.

The municipality of Uerkheim was considering a merger on 1 January 2014 into Zofingen.

The population history of Uerkheim is: 1764 - 531 inhabitants 1850 - 1,310 inhabitants 1900 - 1,386 inhabitants 1950 - 1,101 inhabitants 1975 - 1,177 inhabitants 1980 - 1,168 inhabitants 1990 - 1,281 inhabitants 2000 - 1,287 inhabitants 2020 - 1,342 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 15.7% belonged to the Roman Catholic Church
 * 69.5% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church

The church of Uerkheim has existed since 1159. The church was reconstructed around 1520.

Church Records
The parish of Uerkheim was first mentioned in 1159. It became Reformed in the 1520s.

Original church records are located onsite at the Uerkheim municipal archive. Microfilm copies of the following church records are available onsite at the Aargau State Archives:
 * Baptisms 1559-1560, 1564-1625; marriages 1558-1667; burials 1558-1679 (with gaps)
 * Baptisms 1626-1686
 * Baptisms 1686-1757; marriages, burials 1686-1751; confirmations 1715-1748
 * Baptisms 1758-1790; marriages 1752-1793
 * Baptisms 1791-1816
 * Marriages 1794-1816
 * Burials 1752-1814; confirmations 1750-1813

The following church records are only available onsite at the Uerkheim municipal archive:
 * Baptisms 1817-1857
 * Baptisms 1857-1875
 * Marriages 1817-1852
 * Marriages 1853-1875
 * Marriages non-resident citizens 1817-1874
 * Burials 1817-1875

Post-1875 church records are found onsite at the Uerkheim parish church office.

Census
(See here for information regarding Aargau census records.)

The following censuses are available from FamilySearch for Uerkheim:
 * 1837 (images 296-322)
 * 1850: Form A (images 193-224)
 * 1850: Form B (image 225)

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Uerkheim prior to 1875:

Related sources
The town's website (in German) can be found here.

Libraries and archives
State Archives of Aargau

Societies
Genealogical-Heraldic Society of Bern (GHGB)