Zeihen Parish, Aargau, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Zeihen 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 former municipality of Zeihen is in the Laufenburg district and the Aargau canton. It is located in the upper Fricktal. The municipality of Zeihen includes the village of Unterzeihen (or Niederzeihen) and eight isolated farms.

Zeihen (as of 2009) has an area of 6.88 km² (2.66 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 50.9% - agricultural purposes
 * 40.7% - forested
 * 8.6% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 0.1% - rivers or lakes
 * 0.1% - non-productive

History
In 1308, Zeihen was first mentioned by the name of ze Eigen. In 1310 as Zeyen. Zeihen is in the Laufenburg district and the Aargau canton.

In 1852, the municipality of Zeihen was formed by the merger of Niederzeihen with Oberzeihen.

The population history of Zeihen is: 1768 - 193 inhabitants 1850 - 457 inhabitants 1900 - 614 inhabitants 1950 - 764 inhabitants 1975 - 743 inhabitants 1980 - 726 inhabitants 1990 - 722 inhabitants 2000 - 865 inhabitants 2020 - 1,170 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 62.5% were Roman Catholic
 * 20.3% were Swiss Reformed Church

In 1700, a chapel was built in Niederzeihen In 1755, a chapel was built in Oberzeihen. It was rebuilt in 1841. In 1821, the Saint-Charles-Borromée church was built. In 1966, it was rebuilt.

Church Records
The parish of Zeihen was created in 1852 from the parish of Herznach; the parish church is called St. Karl Borromäus. See Herznach for earlier records.

The following church records are only available onsite at the Zeihen municipal archive:
 * Baptisms 1853-1875
 * Marriages 1853-1875
 * Burials 1853-1875
 * Family book 1854-1940

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

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

Niederzeihen was a municipality until 1853, when it merged with the village of Oberzeihen (part of Herznach) into the municipality of Zeihen. For censuses for Oberzeihen, see Herznach. The following censuses are available from FamilySearch for Niederzeihen:
 * 1837 (images 5-13)
 * 1850: Form A (images 708-719)
 * 1850: Form B (image 720)

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Zeihen 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)