Aarau Parish, Aargau, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Aarau 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 Aarau is in the Aargau canton. It is also a town and capital of the district of Aarau. Aarau is located on the Swiss plateau, in the valley of the Aare, on the river's right bank, and at the southern foot of the Jura Mountains. It is west of Zürich, south of Basel, northeast of Bern and borders the canton of Solothurn to the west. Aarau is the largest town in the canton of Aargau. Since 2010, the former political municipality of Rohr has also been part of Aarau.

Aarau (as of 2006) has an area of 8.9 km² (3.4 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 6.3% - agricultural purposes
 * 34% - forested
 * 55.2% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 4.5% - non-productive

History
In 1248, Aarau was first mentioned by the name of Arowe. Around 1250 it was attested as Arowa.

Aarau merged into the Aarau municipality at the beginning of 2010. Other municipalities merged include:
 * Rohr

The population history of Aarau is: 1558 - 1,200 inhabitants 1764 - 1,868 inhabitants 1798 - 2,458 inhabitants 1850 - 4,657 inhabitants 1880 - 5,914 inhabitants 1910 - 9,593 inhabitants 1930 - 11,666 inhabitants 1950 - 14,280 inhabitants 1970 - 16,881 inhabitants 1987 - 15,750 inhabitants 1990 - 16,481 inhabitants 1993 - 15,900 inhabitants 2016 - 21,036 inhabitants 2020 - 21,726 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 28.9% were Roman Catholic
 * 43.6% were Swiss Reformed Church
 * 0.33% were Christian Catholic

Rebuilt in 1471-1479, the Church of Our Lady, mentioned as early as 1275, was until its erection into a parish in 1568, a subsidiary of Suhr.

Catholic
The Catholic parish of Peter und Paul was established in Aarau in 1803, and serviced much over twenty surrounding municipalities. The following church records are available onsite in the Aarau civil registration office:
 * Baptisms 1803-1852; marriages 1803-1820, 1835-1875; burials 1804-1875; banns 1817-1875; confirmations 1829-1865
 * Baptisms 1817-1875
 * Marriages 1817-1852
 * Marriages 1853-1875
 * Marriages non-resident citizens 1817-1875
 * Burials 1817-1875

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

Reformed
Originally part of Suhr, Aarau became Reformed in the 1530s. Aarau was established as an independent parish in 1568.

The following church records are available onsite in the Aarau city archive:
 * Baptisms 1534-1544
 * Baptisms, marriages 1544-1553; burials 1549-1553
 * Baptisms 1555-1592
 * Baptisms 1592-1646; marriages 1614-1646
 * Baptisms 1598-1621
 * Baptisms 1626-1681; marriages 1629-1683
 * Baptisms 1646-1721; marriages 1647-1713; burials 1673-1715; confirmations 1668-1720
 * Baptisms 1682-1749; marriages 1684-1750; burials 1682-1749; confirmations 1682-1750
 * Baptisms 1721-1734, 1750-1786; marriages, burials 1721-1734
 * Baptisms 1750-1800
 * Baptisms 1787-1807
 * Baptisms 1808-1816; baptisms non-resident citizens 1812-1875
 * Marriages 1750-1827
 * Burials 1750-1810
 * Burials 1811-1816

The following church records are available onsite in the Aarau civil registration office:
 * Baptisms 1801-1824
 * Baptisms 1817-1838
 * Baptisms 1839-1858
 * Baptisms 1859-1874
 * Baptisms 1874-1875
 * Marriages 1817-1849
 * Marriages non-resident citizens 1817-1875
 * Marriage announcements 1828-1852; divorces 1829-1875
 * Marriages 1850-1852
 * Marriages 1853-1875
 * Burials 1817-1853
 * Burials 1854-1871
 * Burials 1872-1875

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

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

The following censuses are available from FamilySearch for Aarau:
 * 1837 (images 5-86)
 * 1850: Form A (images 6-116)
 * 1850: Form B (images 117-126)

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Aarau 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)