Boswil Parish, Aargau, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Boswil 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 Boswil is in the district of Muri in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. The village is located in the Bünztal valley at the foot of the Lindenberg mountain. The hamlet Wissenbach and Sentenhof (a former estate of the Benedictine Muri Abbey) is part of the municipality. It also includes the village of Boswil.

Boswil (as of 2009) has an area of 11.77 km² (4.54 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 65.8% - agricultural purposes
 * 21.9% - forested
 * 10.9% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 0.8% - rivers or lakes
 * 0.4% - non-productive

History
In a document possibly dated between 874 and 887, Boswil was first mentioned by the name of Bozuuila.

The population history of Boswil is: 1765 - 709 inhabitants 1850 - 1,249 inhabitants 1900 - 1,246 inhabitants 1950 - 1,463 inhabitants 2000 - 2,308 inhabitants 2020 - 2,923 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 69.7% were Roman Catholic
 * 14.1% were Swiss Reformed Church

The St. Martin's chapel has been incorporated into the Muri monastery since 1111. From the 11th century Boswil belonged to the Habsburg. In late Middle Ages, Boswil was the center of a large parish, which included today's communities of Boswil, Bünzen, Waldhäuser, Besenbüren, and Waltenschwil. The current neo-Gothic Pankrazius Church west of the old church complex was inaugurated in 1890.

Church Records
The parish of Boswil, named St. Pankraz, is a large parish existing since the Middle Ages. It includes the municipality of Kallern. It included Waltenschwil until 1800.

Original church records are located onsite at the Boswil parish church office. Microfilm copies of the following church records are available onsite at the Aargau State Archives:
 * Baptisms, marriages, burials, confirmations 1670-1724
 * Baptisms, marriages, burials 1725-1875; confirmations 1731-1780
 * Baptisms 1782-1816; marriages 1782-1821; marriages 1782-1817
 * Baptisms 1817-1886; marriages 1821-1886; burials 1818-1885; confirmations 1786-1881

The following church records are only available onsite at the Boswil municipal archive:
 * Baptisms 1817-1875
 * Marriages 1817-1852
 * Marriages 1853-1875
 * Marriages non-resident citizens 1819-1873
 * Burials 1817-1875

Post-1875 church records, as well as the following church records, are found onsite at the Boswil parish church office:
 * Family book 1760-1764
 * Family book 1765-1784
 * Family book Boswil 1787-1794
 * Family book Waltenschwil and Büelisacker 1787-1795
 * Family book 1798-1805
 * Family book 1820-1847
 * Family book 1846-1882

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

The following censuses are available from FamilySearch for Boswil:
 * 1837 (images 461-476)
 * 1850: Form A (images 613-642)
 * 1850: Form B (image 643)

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Boswil 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)