Airolo Parish, Ticino, Switzerland Genealogy

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



Geography
As of 1997, Airolo has an area of 94.37 square kilometers (36.44 sq mi). Airolo is situated in Leventina valley and the Lepontine Alps, on the southern flank of the St. Gotthard Pass. Both the Gotthard rail tunnel, on the major Gotthard railway linking northern and southern Europe, and the Gotthard road tunnel, on the A2 motorway, have their southern portal in Airolo. It is the largest municipality in the canton of Ticino, and includes the village of Airolo and the hamlets of Valle, Madrano, Brugnasco, Nante and Fontana. The municipalities of Airolo and Quinto are thinking about a merger sometime in the future into a new municipality which will be known as Airolo-Quinto.

The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 3.9% - agricultural purposes
 * 21.7% - forested
 * 2.9% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 2.4% - rivers or lakes
 * 41.6% - unproductive land

History
The first mention of Airolo is in 1254 as Oriolo.

The population history of Airolo is: 1574 - 597 inhabitants 1682 - 1000 inhabitants 1785 - 1237 inhabitants 1850 - 1624 inhabitants 1880 - 3678 inhabitants (drilling of the Gotthard) 1900 - 1628 inhabitants 1950 - 1848 inhabitants 2000 - 1593 inhabitants 2010 - 1558 inhabitants 2020 - 1476 inhabitants

The church, dedicated to Nazaire and Celse, was first mentioned with the parish in 1224. Building history can be traced from the 5th and 6th century, with many phases of construction, of which the complete series was documented by the excavations of 1995. The current building which was built in 1879, retains its Romanesque bell tower.

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

The 1808 Ticino census for Airolo does not survive.

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Airolo prior to 1875, along with any known soprannomi. For more information about soprannomi, click here.

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

Libraries and archives
State Archives of Ticino

Societies
Società Genealogica della Svizzera Italiana (SGSI)