Rothrist Parish, Aargau, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Rothrist 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 Rothrist is in the district of Zofingen in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. It is situated along a bend in the Aare river. It is located west of the junction of the Pfaffnern and Wigger rivers. It includes the village of Rothrist and a number of scattered the hamlets.

Rothrist (as of 2009) has an area of 11.84 km² (4.57 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 33.8% - agricultural purposes
 * 32.8% - forested
 * 30.6% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 2.0% - either rivers or lakes
 * 0.3% - non-productive

History
In 1263, Rothrist was first mentioned by the name of Routris.

The population history of Rothrist is: 1764 - 1,121 inhabitants 1850 - 2,620 inhabitants 1900 - 2,846 inhabitants 1950 - 4,219 inhabitants 2000 - 6,869 inhabitants 2020 - 9,290 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 24.4% belonged to the Roman Catholic Church
 * 54.7% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
 * 0.23% belonged to the Christian Catholic faith

Throughout the Middle Ages it belonged to the church parish of Zofingen kirchgenössig. Between 1667-1714, it was part of the ecclesiastical court of Oftringen. In 1714, the Reformed parish of Rothrist was founded with its own church. The village's Catholic church was constructed in 1971.

Church Records
The parish of Niederwil, now called Rothrist, was established in 1714. Before 1714, it belonged to the parish of Zofingen.

Original church records are located onsite at the Rothrist municipal archive. Microfilm copies of the following church records are available onsite at the Aargau State Archives:
 * Baptisms, marriages, burials 1715-1751; marriages non-resident citizens 1752-1763
 * Baptisms 1750-1790
 * Baptisms 1791-1816
 * Baptisms 1817-1840
 * Baptisms 1841-1875
 * Marriages 1752-1816; banns 1817-1838
 * Marriages 1817-1852
 * Marriages 1852-1875
 * Burials 1752-1816
 * Burials 1817-1857
 * Burials 1858-1875

The following church records are only available onsite at the Rothrist municipal archive:
 * Baptisms non-resident citizens 1739-1818
 * Marriages non-resident citizens 1817-1859

Post-1875 church records, as well as the following church records, are found onsite at the Rothrist parish church office:
 * Baptisms non-resident citizens 1710-1758; confirmations 1728-1776
 * Marriages 1839-1857

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

The following censuses are available from FamilySearch for Rothrist, formerly called Niederwil:
 * 1837 (images 240-288)
 * 1850: Form A (images 668-732)
 * 1850: Form B (images 733-734)

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Rothrist 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)