Safenwil Parish, Aargau, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Safenwil 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 Safenwil is in the district of Zofingen in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. It is situated between the lower Wigger and Suhre river valleys. Sharing its northern border is the Canton of Solothurn.

Safenwil (as of 2009) has an area of 5.99 km² (2.31 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 27.7% - agricultural purposes
 * 45.9% - forested
 * 26.9% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 0.2% - non-productive

History
In 924, Safenwil was first mentioned by the name of Sabenewilare.

The population history of Safenwil is: 1764 - 506 inhabitants 1798 - 713 inhabitants 1850 - 1,200 inhabitants 1900 - 1,347 inhabitants 1950 - 1,919 inhabitants 2000 - 3,128 inhabitants 2020 - 4,107 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 20.5% belonged to the Roman Catholic Church
 * 60.7% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church

In 1304, Zofingen monastery constructed the St. Ulrich's Chapel in Safenwil. During the Protestant Reformation, Bern demolished the chapel. Before the Reformation, Safenwil belonged to the Gretzenbach parish. Between 1528-1616, it was part of the Zofingen parish, and after 1616 it belonged to the Kölliken parish. In 1865, it became an independent parish, and constructed its own church in 1866-67.

Church Records
The parish of Safenwil became independent in 1865. It first belonged to Zofingen until 1616. Between 1616-1865 it belonged to the parish of Kölliken. See Kölliken and Zofingen for more information.

The following records are available onsite at the Safenwil parish church office:
 * Baptisms 1866-1915
 * Marriages 1866-
 * Burials 1866-1998
 * Confirmations 1867-1976

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

The following censuses are available from FamilySearch for Safenwil:
 * 1837 (images 322-346)
 * 1850: Form A (images 108-136)
 * 1850: Form B (image 137)

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Safenwil 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)