Zurzach Parish, Aargau, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Zurzach 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 former municipality of Bad Zurzach is in the Zurzach district and the Aargau canton. It is located on the Rhine river. There are a thermal bath and an outdoor bathing facility in the municipality of Bad Zurzach.

Bad Zurzach (as of 2009) has an area of 6.52 km² (2.52 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 25.2% - agricultural purposes
 * 42.6% - forested
 * 27.9% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 4.3% - rivers or lakes
 * 0.2% - non-productive

History
Prior to 21 May 2006, Bad Zurzach was known as Zurzach. In 700, Bad Zurzach was first mentioned by the name of Urtzache. In 830 as Zuriaca. The old French name is Zurzac. Bad Zurzach is in the Zurzach district and the Aargau canton.

Bad Zurzach merged into the Zurzach municipality on 1 January 2022. Other municipalities merged include:
 * Baldingen
 * Böbikon
 * Kaiserstuhl
 * Rekingen
 * Rietheim
 * Rümikon
 * Wislikofen

The population history of Bad Zurzach is: 1510 - 500 inhabitants 1780 - 1024 inhabitants 1850 - 948 inhabitants 1900 - 1,287 inhabitants 1950 - 2,401 inhabitants 1975 - 3,072 inhabitants 1980 - 3,141 inhabitants 1990 - 3,641 inhabitants 2000 - 3,905 inhabitants 2010 - 4,045 inhabitants 2020 - 4,379 inhabitants 2021 - 4,514 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 44.4% were Roman Catholic
 * 29.5% were Swiss Reformed Church
 * 0.23% were Christian Catholic Church

Since the 11th century, the Notre Dame church joined with the Sainte-Vérène collegiate church. In 1517, it was rebuilt. In 1529, the Reformation was adopted. In 1531, half of the inhabitants returned to the old faith. Since 1531, the parish served both denominations equally.

Church Records
The parish of Zurzach is ancient. During the Reformation, about half of the residents remained Catholic, while the other half became Reformed. Both denominations used the same church, St. Verena, until 1716-1717, when a separate Reformed church was built.

Catholic
The Catholic parish of Zurzach is located in St. Verena church and included the municipality of Baldingen until 1883.

The following church records are only available onsite at the Zurzach municipal archive:


 * Baptisms 1608-1675; marriages 1624-1814; burials 1624-1814
 * Baptisms 1675-1814
 * Baptisms, marriages, burials 1814-1817
 * Baptisms 1817-1875
 * Marriages 1817-1852
 * Marriages 1853-1876
 * Marriages non-resident citizens 1817-1852, 1870-1874
 * Burials 1817-1875

Post-1875 church records, as well as the following church records, are found onsite at the Zurzach Catholic parish church office.
 * Baptisms non-citizen residents 1817-1859
 * Family book 1730-1740
 * Family book 1740-1791
 * Family book 1856-1932

Reformed
The Reformed parish of Zurzach includes the municipalities of Böbikon, Mellikon, Rekingen (until 1878), and Rietheim.

Original church records and microfilm copies of the following church records are available onsite at the Aargau State Archives:
 * Baptisms, marriages 1574-1705; burials 1601-1612
 * Baptisms, marriages, confirmations 1706-1797; burials 1709-1797
 * Baptisms, marriages, burials 1798-1812
 * Baptisms 1812-1817; baptisms non-resident citizens 1812-1875
 * Baptisms 1817-1875
 * Family book Zurzach 1815-1910
 * Family book Mellikon 1835-1925
 * Family book Rietheim 1830-1924
 * Family book Rekingen 1872-1930

The following church records are only available onsite at the Zurzach municipal archive:
 * Marriages 1812-1816; banns 1817-1853
 * Marriages 1817-1852
 * Marriages 1853-1875
 * Marriages, non-resident citizens 1817-1875
 * Burials 1812-1818; burials non-resident citizens 1819-1875
 * Burials 1817-1875

Post-1875 church records are found onsite at the Zurzach parish church office.

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

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

The following censuses are available for Zurzach:

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

The following censuses are available from FamilySearch for Zurzach:
 * 1837 (images 523-534)
 * 1850: Form A (images 780-805)
 * 1850: Form B (images 806-807)

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Zurzach 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)