Bünzen Parish, Aargau, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Bünzen 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 Bünzen is in the district of Muri in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. It is situated at the foot of the Lindenberg and on moraine that stretches to the shore of the Bünz river. It includes the village of Bünzen and the village of Waldhäusern which was independent until 1940.

Bünzen (as of 2009) has an area of 5.77 km² (2.23 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 60.8% - agricultural purposes
 * 28.4% - forested
 * 10.1% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 0.3% - either rivers or lakes
 * 0.3% - non-productive

History
In 1259, Bünzen was first mentioned by the name of Bunzina.

The population history of Bünzen is: 1850 - 574 inhabitants 1860 - 662 inhabitants 1900 - 585 inhabitants 1930 - 826 inhabitants 1950 - 759 inhabitants 1980 - 683 inhabitants 2000 - 865 inhabitants 2020 - 1,128 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 65.8% were Roman Catholic
 * 17.5% were Swiss Reformed Church

The village church, under the authority of Muri Abbey, was incorporated in 1328. The church was given Saint George as a patron saint in 1412. The current neo-Gothic parish church building was constructed in 1862 at the northern exit of the village and replaced the earlier church from 1508.

Church Records
The parish of Bünzen was first mentioned in 1328; the parish church is called St. Georg. It includes the municipalities of Besenbüren and Waldhäusern.

Original church records are located onsite at the Dottikon municipal archive. Microfilm copies of the following church records are available onsite at the Aargau State Archives:
 * Baptisms, marriages, burials 1733-1819 (organized by location)
 * Baptisms 1818-1875; marriages, deaths 1818-1859
 * Confirmations 1723-1742
 * Family book 1773-1795
 * Family book 1789-1797
 * Family book 1783-1857

The following church records are only available onsite at the Bünzen municipal archive:
 * Baptisms 1817-1875
 * Marriages 1817-1852; marriages non-resident citizens 1817-1856
 * Marriages 1853-1875
 * Burials 1817-1875

Post-1875 church records, as well as the following church records, are found onsite at the Bünzen parish church office.
 * Family book Bünzen 1825-1904
 * Family book Besenbüren 1825-1916
 * Family book Waldhäusern and Unterniesenburg 1825-1911

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

Waldhäusern was a separate municipality until 1940, when it became part of Bünzen. During these censuses, it was enumerated separately. The following censuses are available from FamilySearch for Bünzen and Waldhäusern:

Bünzen

 * 1837 (images 488-494)
 * 1850: Form A (images 644-654)
 * 1850: Form B (images 655-656)

Waldhäusern

 * 1837 (499-501)
 * 1850: Form A (images 81-84)
 * 1850: Form B (image 85)

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

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

Libraries and archives
State Archives of Aargau

Societies
Central Swiss Society for Family History (ZGF)