Oeschgen Parish, Aargau, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Oeschgen 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 Oeschgen is in the district of Laufenburg in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. It is situated in the upper Fricktal (Frick river valley). It is located along the Sisselnbach and on the A3 motorway. It includes the haufendorf village (an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square) of Oeschgen.

Oeschgen (as of 2009) has an area of 4.38 km² (1.69 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 67.4% - agricultural purposes
 * 18.3% - forested
 * 14.2% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 0.7% - either rivers or lakes
 * 0.2% - non-productive

History
In 1234, Oeschgen was first mentioned by the name of Escecon. It was also mentioned in 1242 as Eschincon. A camp for interned Polish soldiers during World War II was built near the village.

The population history of Oeschgen is: 1788 - 389 inhabitants 1850 - 604 inhabitants 1900 - 392 inhabitants 1950 - 472 inhabitants 2000 - 798 inhabitants 2020 - 1,049 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 64.7% belonged to the Roman Catholic Church
 * 20.7% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
 * 0.38% belonged to the Christian Catholic faith

The church of St. Cosmas and St. Damian was probably from the late 12th century and a new building was constructed in 1912.

Church Records
The parish of Oeschgen was first mentioned at the end of the twelfth century; the parish church is called St. Kosmas und Damian.

The following church records are available onsite in the Oeschgen parish church office:
 * Baptisms 1695-1820
 * Baptisms 1817-1821
 * Marriages 1696-1819
 * Burials 1696-1820
 * Confirmations 1705-1841, 1885-1891

The following church records are available onsite in the Oeschgen municipal archive:
 * Baptisms 1817-1875
 * Marriages 1817-1852
 * Marriages 1853-1875
 * Marriages non-resident citizens 1817-1852
 * Burials 1817-1875
 * Family book 1850-1935

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

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

The following censuses are available from FamilySearch for Oeschgen:
 * 1837 (images 28-38)
 * 1850: Form A (images 556-570)
 * 1850: Form B (images 571)

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Oeschgen 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 Region Basel (GHGRB)