Birr Parish, Aargau, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Birr 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 Birr is in the Swiss canton of Aargau and the capital of Brugg (district). It is situated on the western edge of the Birrfelds, and has grown together with the municipality of Lupfig to the north. It includes the haufendorf village (an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square) of Birr.

Birr (as of 2007) has an area of 5.05 km² (1.95 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 35.0% - agricultural purposes
 * 34.9% - forested
 * 29.9% - settled (buildings or roads)

History
In 1270, Birr was first mentioned by the name of Bire.

The population history of Birr is: 1850 - 498 inhabitants 1900 - 448 inhabitants 1950 - 562 inhabitants 1975 - 2,749 inhabitants 1980 - 2,838 inhabitants 1990 - 3,324 inhabitants 2000 - 3,529 inhabitants 2020 - 4,598 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 35.2% were Roman Catholic
 * 29.7% were Swiss Reformed Church

The chapel, a branch of Windisch, was transformed into a parish church with the Reformation. The parish also consists of Lupfig, Birrhard, Scherz, Schinznach-Bad, and Brunegg. The existing reformed parish church was constructed in 1662 by Abraham Dünz.

Church Records
Originally a filial church, the independent parish of Birr was established in 1528 during the Reformation. It includes the municipalities of Birrhard, Brunegg, Lupfig, Scherz, and Schinznach Bad (Birrenlauf). Original church records are located onsite at the Birr municipal archive. Microfilm copies of the following church records are available onsite at the Aargau State Archives:
 * Baptims 1586-1601, 1611-1613; marriages 1587-1601; burials 1589-1598
 * Baptisms 1618-1681; marriages 1618-1650, 1654-1679; burials 1663-1668, 1675-1678
 * Baptisms 1681-1723; marriages 1681-1736; burials 1681-1714; confirmations 1748-1751
 * Baptisms 1724-1752; marriages 1737-1752
 * Baptisms 1752-1793
 * Baptisms 1794-1816; baptisms non-resident citizens 1867-1870
 * Baptisms 1817-1840
 * Baptisms 1841-1875
 * Marriages 1752-1816; banns 1817-1819
 * Marriages 1817-1852
 * Marriages 1853-1875
 * Marriages, non-resident citizens 1817-1875
 * Burials 1714-1752; confirmations 1738-1752
 * Burials 1752-1816
 * Burials 1817-1866
 * Burials 1867-1875

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

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

The following censuses are available from FamilySearch for Birr:
 * 1837 (images 183-193)
 * 1850: Form A (images 34-46)
 * 1850: Form B (image 47)

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Birr 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)