Murgenthal Parish, Aargau, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Murgenthal 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 Murgenthal is in the district of Zofingen in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. The municipality, founded in 1901, is situated at the confluence of the Murg river into the Aare river. It is located on the border between the Canton of Aargau and the Canton of Bern. It includes the village of Murgenthal and the hamlets of Walliswil, Balzenwil, Glashütten, and Riken.

Murgenthal (as of 2009) has an area of 18.65 km² (7.20 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 27.8% - agricultural purposes
 * 62.8% - forested
 * 8.1% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 1.2% - either rivers or lakes

History
In 1255, Murgenthal was first mentioned by the name of Murgatun.

The population history of Murgenthal is: 1764 - 773 inhabitants 1910 - 2,171 inhabitants 1950 - 2,638 inhabitants 1980 - 2,537 inhabitants 1990 - 2,715 inhabitants 2000 - 2,741 inhabitants 2020 - 2,959 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 21.1% belonged to the Roman Catholic
 * 57.4% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
 * 0.11% belonged to the Christian Catholic faith

Under Bernese rule the villagers belonged to the Wynau and Roggwil parishes. In 1817 a new parish was founded and in 1901 its name was changed to the Riken Murgenthal parish. The church in Glashütten, constructed in 1852-1854 in the neo-Romanesque style, was replaced in 1964 by a new building.

Church Records
The parish of Murgenthal, located in the former municipality of Riken, was established in 1817. Before 1817, Balzenwil belonged to the parish of Roggwil in Canton Bern. Riken belonged to the parish of Wynau in Canton Bern. See Roggwil and Wynau for more information.

Original church records are located onsite at the Murgenthal municipal archive. Microfilm copies of the following church records are available onsite at the Aargau State Archives:
 * Baptisms 1817-1845
 * Baptisms 1846-1875
 * Marriages 1817-1852
 * Marriages 1853-1875
 * Burials 1817-1875

The following church records are only available onsite at the Murgenthal municipal archive:
 * Marriages 1827-1852
 * Marriages, non-resident citizens 1817-1875

Post-1875 church records and all confirmation records are found onsite at the Glashütten parish church office.

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

Murgenthal was created in 1901 from the merger of the municipalities of Balzenwil and Riken. During these censuses, both municipalities were enumerated separately. The following censuses are available from FamilySearch for Balzenwil and Riken:

Balzenwil

 * 1837 (images 396-400)
 * 1850: Form A (images 483-487)
 * 1850: Form B (image 488)

Riken

 * 1837 (image 493-519)
 * 1850: Form A (images 74-106)
 * 1850: Form B (image 107)

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Murgenthal 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)