Niederwil Parish, Aargau, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Niederwil 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 Niederwil is in the district of Bremgarten in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. The municipality is situated on the left bank of the Reuss river. It includes the village of Niederwil and since 1901, the village of Nesselnbach and the former Gnadental convent.

Niederwil (as of 2006) has an area of 6.1 km² (2.4 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 53% - agricultural purposes
 * 30.4% - forested
 * 14.1% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 2.5% - non-productive (rivers or lakes)

History
In 924, Niederwil was first mentioned by the name of Wilare.

The population history of Niederwil is: 1837 - 617 inhabitants 1850 - 689 inhabitants 1888 - 484 inhabitants 1900 - 500 inhabitants 1920 - 808 inhabitants 1950 - 1,102 inhabitants 2000 - 2,471 inhabitants 2020 - 2,863 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 59.9% belonged to the Roman Catholic Church
 * 26.8% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
 * 0.20% belonged to the Christian Catholic faith

The Saint-Martin church was built around 1000 and mentioned in 1045. It was rebuilt in 1690-1691. The parish of Niederwil consisted of the majority of the village, Nesselnbach, Tägerig (until 1864) and some farms of Wohlen (until 1518). In 1529-31, Niederwil briefly adopted the Reformation.

Church Records
The parish of Niederwil was first mentioned in 1000; the parish church is called St. Martin. It included Tägerig until 1864.

Original church records are located onsite at the Niederwil municipal archive. Microfilm copies of the following church records are available onsite at the Aargau State Archives:
 * Baptisms, marriages 1647-1773; burials 1647-1776
 * Baptisms, marriages 1774-1823; burials 1776-1823; confirmations 1780-1808
 * Baptisms, marriages, burials 1824-1846; confirmations 1829-1865
 * Baptisms 1817-1861
 * Baptisms 1861-1875

The following church records are only available onsite at the Niederwil municipal archive:
 * Marriages 1853-1875
 * Burials 1817-1875

Post-1875 church records, as well as the following church records, are found onsite at the Niederwil parish church office.
 * Marriages 1817-1852
 * Marriages non-resident citizens 1829-1857
 * Family book 1767-1778

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

Nesselnbach was a separate municipality until 1901, when it became part of Niederwil. During these censuses, it was enumerated separately. The following censuses are available from FamilySearch for Niederwil and Nesselnbach:

Niederwil

 * 1837 (images 21-34)
 * 1850: Form A (images 540-556)
 * 1850: Form B (image 557)

Nesselnbach

 * 1837 (images 645-651)
 * 1850: Form A (images 531-538)
 * 1850: Form B (image 539)

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Niederwil prior to 1875:

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

Libraries and archives
State Archives of Aargau

Societies
Central Swiss Society for Family History (ZGF)