Mönthal Parish, Aargau, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Mönthal 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 Mönthal is in the district of Brugg in canton of Aargau in Switzerland. The municipality is situated in a Jura valley between Brugg and Laufenburg. It includes the village of Mönthal and the hamlet of Ampfern on the Ampfernhöhe as well as scattered villages.

Mönthal (as of 2009) has an area of 3.93 km² (1.52 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 45.3% - agricultural purposes
 * 46.1% - forested
 * 8.7% - settled (buildings or roads)

History
In 1273, Mönthal was first mentioned by the name of Muenuntal.

The population history of Mönthal is: 1764 - 253 inhabitants 1850 - 515 inhabitants 1900 - 333 inhabitants 1950 - 257 inhabitants 1970 - 239 inhabitants 2000 - 441 inhabitants 2020 - 393 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 26.9% belonged to the Roman Catholic Church
 * 51.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
 * 1.51% belonged to the Christian Catholic faith

St. George's church was first mentioned in 1273. After 1380, the rights to the church collection and the appointment of the minister was owned by Brugg. After 1860, Mönthal developed as an independent Reformed parish, though in 2007 it merged into the Bözberg parish.

Church Records
The parish of Mönthal was established in 1860. Prior to 1860, Mönthal belonged to the parish of Brugg. See Brugg for earlier records.

Original church records are located onsite at the Mönthal municipal archive. Microfilm copies of the following church records are available onsite at the Aargau State Archives:
 * Baptisms, marriages 1578-1653; burials 1583-1627, 1636-1652
 * Baptisms, marriages, burials 1654-1751; confirmations 1694-1751
 * Baptisms 1752-1816
 * Baptisms 1817-1875
 * Marriages 1752-1816; banns 1817-1852
 * Marriages 1817-1852
 * Marriages 1853-1875
 * Burials 1752-1816
 * Burials 1817-1875
 * Family book, citizens and non-citizen residents 1873-1924

The following church record is only available onsite at the Mönthal municipal archive:
 * Marriages, non-resident citizens 1834-1863

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

The following censuses are available from FamilySearch for Mönthal:
 * 1837 (images 285-293)
 * 1850: Form A (images 253-265)
 * 1850: Form B (images 266-268)

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Mönthal 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)