Lengnau Parish, Aargau, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Lengnau 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 Lengnau is in the district of Zurzach in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. The municipality is situated in the Surb river valley. It includes the village of Lengnau and the hamlets of Degermoos, Husen, Himmelrich, and Vogelsang.

Lengnau (as of 2009) has an area of 12.67 km² (4.89 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 52.4% - agricultural purposes
 * 37.6% - forested
 * 9.6% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 0.1% - either rivers or lakes

History
In 798, Lengnau was first mentioned by the name of Lenginwanc.

It is recognized for being one of two villages where residence was permitted for Swiss Jews between 1633 and 1874. Lengnau's synagogue is recorded as a heritage site of national significance.

The population history of Lengnau is: 1799 - 950 inhabitants 1850 - 1,761 inhabitants 1900 - 1,119 inhabitants 1950 - 1,355 inhabitants 1990 - 2,040 inhabitants 2000 - 2,287 inhabitants 2020 - 2,770 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 62.0% belonged to the Roman Catholic Church
 * 20.8% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
 * 0.26% belonged to Christian Catholic faith

The Catholic parish of Lengnau was probably the private church of the House of Regensberg. In 1269 the church and the other rights of the Lords of Regensberg passed over to the Beuggen family. St. Martin's Church was constructed in 1977, incorporating the older baroque choir and tower. The Reformed Church members are belong to the parish of Tegerfelden since 1940, before that, it is unclear what parish they may have belonged to. The Jewish population constructed their first synagogue in 1750 and the second in 1847, which shaped much of the modern village.

Church Records
The parish of Lengnau was first mentioned in 1269; its parish church is called St. Martin. It inlcudes the municipality of Freienwil. Along with Endingen, Lengnau had a sizable Jewish population.

Original church records through are located onsite at the Lengnau parish church office; post 1778 records are located at the Lengnau municipal archive. Microfilm copies of the following church records are available onsite at the Aargau State Archives:
 * Baptisms 1607-1710; marriages 1589-1708; burials 1589-1710; confirmations 1684-1701
 * Baptisms 1710-1778
 * Baptisms 1778-1824 (organized by location); confirmations 1778-1865 (organized by location)
 * Baptisms 1817-1841
 * Baptisms 1842-1875
 * Marriages, burials 1710-1778; confirmations 1710-1768
 * Marriages, burials 1778-1824 (organized by location)
 * Marriages 1817-1852
 * Marriages 1853-1875
 * Marriages non-resident citizens 1817-1875
 * Burials 1817-1864
 * Burials 1865-1875

Post-1875 church records, as well as the following family books, are found onsite at the Aarau parish church office.
 * Family book 1784-1803 (organized by location)
 * Family book 1808-1815 (organized by location)
 * Family book 1815-1822 (organized by location)
 * Family book 1842-1931 (organized by location)

Census
Two different types of censuses were taken in Lengnau at different times.

Religious Censuses
See here for article describing the Zürich census records.

The following censuses are available for Lengnau (see also census years for the parish of Niederweningen:

Residential Censuses
(See here for information regarding Aargau census records.)

The following censuses are available from FamilySearch for Lengnau:
 * 1837 (images 607-622)
 * 1837: Jewish residents (images 581-589)
 * 1850: Form A (images 589-633)
 * 1850: Form B (images 634-636)

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Lengnau 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 Zürich (GHGZ)