Chironico Parish, Ticino, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Chironico Parish, Ticino, Switzerland, ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, parish census, civil census, family history, area history, and military records.



Geography
As of 1997, Chironico has an area of 57.77 square kilometers (22.31 sq mi). The municipality is situated in the Leventina district, on the right slope of the mid-Leventina valley at an elevation of 786 meters (2,579 ft). The municipality stretches from the Ticino river at the Biaschina-Schlucht (elevation 450 m (1,480 ft)) up to the Pizzo Campo Tencia (3,072 m (10,079 ft)) in the upper Piumogna valley. The core of the settlement, is made up of the sections of Grumo and Nivo, the latter is the only one in the valley bottom. Above the village center, located on steeply sloping rock terraces are the settlements of Cala, Doro, Olina, and Osadigo Chiesso. The mountain village of Gribbio has a road connection.

The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 1.1% - agricultural purposes
 * 40.2% - forested
 * 1.0% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 1.3% - rivers or lakes
 * 42.6% - unproductive land

On 1 April 2012, Chironico was incorporated into the municipality of Faido along with the following municipalities:
 * Anzonico
 * Calpiogna
 * Campello
 * Cavagnago
 * Mairengo
 * Osco

History
The first mention of Chironico was in 1202 as Cuirono.

The population history of Chironico is: 1567 - 233 hearths 1745 - 565 inhabitants 1850 - 829 inhabitants 1880 - 1041 inhabitants 1900 - 855 inhabitants 1950 - 548 inhabitants 1990 - 393 inhabitants 2000 - 403 inhabitants 2010 - 394 inhabitants 2011 - 388 inhabitants

Most of the villages have chapels that were built in the 16th-18th Centuries. In the past they were inhabited for a large part of the year, and during the Middle Ages may have been occupied year-round. From the old Vicinanza of Chironico, which included four or five Degagna, six municipal corporations have emerged, though they are usually no longer owners of the pastures that they used to use. In the main core of Chironico, with its typical block buildings, is the small church of Saint Ambrogio with a medieval twin apsis and remarkable frescoes. Near the church is the Pedrini tower a six-story residential building probably dating from the first half of the 13th Century. On the outskirts of the settlement is the medieval parish church of Saint Maurizio, in which some testimonies of immigrants who were working as innkeepers in Venice, and a valuable martyrology from 14th-15th Centuries is kept.

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

The 1808 Ticino census for Chironico does not survive..

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Chironico prior to 1875, along with any known soprannomi. For more information about soprannomi, click here.

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

Libraries and archives
State Archives of Ticino

Societies
Società Genealogica della Svizzera Italiana (SGSI)