Windisch Parish, Aargau, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Windisch 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 Windisch is in the Brugg district and the Aargau canton. It is located between the Aare and Reusss rivers in the region known as the Wasserschloss. The municipality of Windisch includes the former linear villages of Oberburg and Windisch and the hamlets of Fahrgut, Schürhof, Lindhof and Bachtalen.

Windisch (as of 2009) has an area of 4.91 km² (1.90 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 23.6% - agricultural purposes
 * 24.8% - forested
 * 45.4% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 6.3% - rivers or lakes

History
In 1064, Windisch was first mentioned by the name of Vinse. In 1175 as Vindisse. Windisch is in the Brugg district and the Aargau canton. Until the 19th century, the official name was Windisch und Oberburg.

The population history of Windisch is: 1578 - 61 inhabitants 1736 - 402 inhabitants 1815 - 661 inhabitants 1850 - 1,287 inhabitants 1880 - 2,052 inhabitants 1900 - 2,389 inhabitants 1910 - 3,231 inhabitants 1950 - 4,363 inhabitants 1980 - 7,598 inhabitants 1990 - 6,915 inhabitants 2000 - 6,650 inhabitants 2020 - 7,733 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 34.4% were Roman Catholic
 * 33.9% were Swiss Reformed Church
 * 0.08% were Christian Catholic Church

In 1310, the current church was built. In 1965, the Church of Our Lady was consecrated. In 1528, the Reformation was introduced.

Church Records
The parish of Windisch was first mentioned in the sixth century, and became Reformed in 1528. It includes the municipalites of Altenburg (now part of Brugg), Habsburg, Hausen (until 1978), and Mülligen.

Original church records are located onsite at the Windisch municipal archive or the Brugg civil registration office. Microfilm copies of the following church records are available onsite at the Aargau State Archives:
 * Baptisms 1575-1616 (with gaps)
 * Baptisms, marriages 1622-1645; burials 1623-1636
 * Baptisms, marriages 1645-1708; burials 1659-1702
 * Baptisms, marriages 1709-1744; burials 1712-1743
 * Baptisms, burials 1744-1776
 * Baptisms 1777-1799; burials 1777-1780
 * Baptisms 1800-1816
 * Baptisms 1817-1844
 * Baptisms 1845-1875
 * Marriages 1744-1780; confirmations 1732-1780
 * Marriages 1780-1816; banns 1844-1852
 * Marriages 1817-1852
 * Marriages 1853-1875
 * Marriages non-resident citizens 1817-1875
 * Burials 1777-1816
 * Burials 1817-1860
 * Burials 1861-1875

Post-1875 church records, as well as the following church records, are found onsite at the Windisch parish church office:
 * Family book 1767
 * Family book 1781-1785
 * Family book 1786-1790
 * Family book 1791-1795
 * Family book 1796
 * Family book 1801-1818
 * Family book 1815-1869

Königsfelden Kantonspital
The Königsfelden Canton hospital was founded in 1803 as an institution for the poor, sick, and insane; in 1872, a psychiatric sanitorium and nursing home was opened in the former hospital. The hospital kept records of the events of its patients, along confessional lines.

Original church records are located onsite at the Brugg regional civil registry office. Microfilm copies of the following church records are available onsite at the Aargau State Archives:


 * Burials, Catholic 1827-1880
 * Baptisms, Reformed 1838-1875
 * Burials, Reformed 1838-1875

The following church record is only located onsite at the Brugg regional civil registry office:
 * Baptisms, Catholic 1827-1880

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

The following censuses are available from FamilySearch for Windisch:
 * 1837 (images 406-424)
 * 1850: Form A (images 492-522)
 * 1850: Form B (image 523)

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Windisch 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)