Diegten Parish, Basel-Landschaft, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Diegten Parish, Basel-Landschaft, 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 Diegten is in the district of Waldenburg in the canton of Basel-Landschaft in Switzerland. It is situated in the Diegter valley. It includes a 2 km (1.2 mi) long string of five linear villages; Ober-Diegten, Mühle-Diegten, Mittel-Diegten, Schloss-Diegten, and Nieder-Diegten.

Diegten (as of 2009) has an area of 9.64 km² (3.72 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 49.5% - agricultural purposes
 * 39.5% - forested
 * 11.1% - settled (buildings or roads)

History
In 1152, Diegten was first mentioned by the name of Dietingoven. In 1213, it was also mentioned as Dietikon. In 1342, it was mentioned by the name as Dietken and in 1671 it was Dieckten.

The population history of Diegten is: 1774 - 431 inhabitants 1850 - 924 inhabitants 1860 - 863 inhabitants 1870 - 825 inhabitants 1880 - 786 inhabitants 1888 - 789 inhabitants 1900 - 717 inhabitants 1910 - 740 inhabitants 1920 - 731 inhabitants 1930 - 717 inhabitants 1941 - 668 inhabitants 1950 - 711 inhabitants 1960 - 641 inhabitants 1970 - 824 inhabitants 1980 - 870 inhabitants 1990 - 1,175 inhabitants 2000 - 1,390 inhabitants 2021 - 1,638 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 16.4% belonged to the Roman Catholic Church
 * 64.6% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
 * 0.43% belonged to an Orthodox church
 * 0.29% belonged to the Christian Catholic Church
 * 4.82% belonged to another Christian church
 * 0.36% belonged to the Jewish faith
 * 1.44% belonged to the Islamic faith

Diegten was an independent parish with the church of St. Peter (first mentioned in 1275) until the church charter passed to the Olsberg monastery in 1314. The Reformation was adopted in 1529, with Diegten merging with the parish of Eptingen to form the Reformed parish of Diegten-Eptingen.

Church Records
Diegten's parish church of St. Peter was first mentioned in 1285. In 1529, the area became Reformed, and Diegten and Eptingen were united into one parish.

Parish records for Diegten are available online from the Basel-Landschaft State Archive. The 40 volumes of digitized records include:
 * 1564-1915 Baptisms at Basel-Landschaft State Archive
 * 1564-1921 Marriages at Basel-Landschaft State Archive
 * 1640-1890 Burials at Basel-Landschaft State Archive
 * 1642-1914 Confirmations at Basel-Landschaft State Archive - with gaps
 * 1771-1915 Family books at Basel-Landschaft State Archive - organized by community

Census
(See here for information regarding Basel-Landschaft census records.)

The following censuses are available from FamilySearch for Diegten:
 * 1815 (images 365-382)

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Diegten prior to 1875:

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

Libraries and archives
State Archives of Basel-Landschaft

Societies
Genealogical-Heraldic Society of Region Basel (GHGRB)