San Nazzaro Parish, Ticino, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to San Nazzaro 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
The former municipality of San Nazzaro is in the Locarno district and the Ticino canton. It is located in the middle of the Gambarogno Riviera, east of Lake Maggiore. San Nazzaro included the Casenzano, Taverna and Vairano hamlets. San Nazzaro has an area of 5.53 km² (2.14 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 11.8% - agricultural purposes
 * 75.8% - forested
 * 12.1% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 1.8% - rivers & lakes
 * 4.3% - non-productive

History
The municipality of San Nazzaro was created in 1929 from the merger of the municipalities of Vairano (a municipality before 1670) and Casenzano (established in 1803).

In 1258, San Nazzaro was first mentioned with the name of sancto Nazario. San Nazzaro is in the Locarno district and the Ticino canton. San Nazzaro merged into a new municipality of Gambarogno on 25 April 2010. Other former municipalities merged include:
 * Caviano
 * Contone
 * Gerra (Gambarogno)
 * Indemini
 * Magadino
 * Piazzogna
 * Sant'Abbondio
 * Vira (Gambarogno)

The population history of Vira is: 1683 - 563 inhabitants 1795 - 601 inhabitants 1850 - 617 inhabitants 1900 - 455 inhabitants 1950 - 454 inhabitants 1960 - 530 inhabitants 1970 - 589 inhabitants 1980 - 579 inhabitants 1990 - 531 inhabitants 2000 - 616 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 74.0% were Roman Catholic
 * 12.7% were Swiss Reformed Church
 * 9.1% belong to another church

Since the 8th century, the church of Saints-Pierre-et-Paul operated. Until 1556, Saints-Pierre-et-Paul was the mother church of all Gambarogno. Then the parishes of Indemini (1556), Sant'Abbondio and San Nazzaro (1558), Piazzogna (1837) and Magadino (1846) were created. The church of Saints-Pierre-et-Paul was rebuilt in 1613-1615.

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

The 1808 Ticino census for San Nazzaro was divided into fracions:
 * Vairano can be accessed here.

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in San Nazzaro 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)