Auw Parish, Aargau, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Auw 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 Auw is in the district of Muri in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. It is situated in the Muri district at the foot of the Lindenberg in the upper Freiamt. It includes the villages of Auw and Rüstenschwil.

Auw (as of 2009) has an area of 8.57 km² (3.31 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 65.9% - agricultural purposes
 * 24.2% - forested
 * 9.5% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 0.2% - non-productive

History
In 924, Auw was first mentioned by the name of Houva. In 1306, it was mentioned as Owe.

The population history of Auw is: 1850 - 881 inhabitants 1900 - 703 inhabitants 1950 - 856 inhabitants 1980 - 956 inhabitants 2000 - 1,239 inhabitants 2020 - 2,203 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 79.8% were Roman Catholic
 * 10.7% were Swiss Reformed Church

Originally a subsidiary of Sins, Auw became a parish in 1638, in agreement with Engelberg, which served it until 1849. In 1705, the church of Saint Nicholas replaced the chapel attested in 1331.

Church Records
The parish of St. Nikolaus in Auw was created in 1638 from the parish of Sins. See Sins for earlier records.

Original church records are located onsite at the Dottikon municipal archive. Microfilm copies of the following church records are available onsite at the Aargau State Archives:
 * Baptisms, marriages, burials 1638-1758; confirmations 1641-1748 (with gaps)
 * Baptisms, burials 1759-1866; marriages 1759-1852; confirmations 1767-1865

Post-1875 church records, as well as the following church records, are found onsite at the Auw parish church office.
 * Baptisms 1817-1875
 * Marriages 1818-1852
 * Marriages 1852-1875
 * Marriages non-resident citizens 1817-1861
 * Burials 1817-1875
 * Family book Rüstenschwil 1820-1846
 * Family book Auw 1866-1898
 * Family book Auw and Rüstenschwil 1866-1900
 * Family book non-citizen residents 1866-1945
 * Family book non-citizen residents 1901-1905

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

Auw includes the village of Rüstenschwil. The following censuses are available from FamilySearch for Auw:
 * 1837: Auw (images 408-415)
 * 1837: Rüstenschwil (image 415-418)
 * 1850: Form A (images 539-559)
 * 1850: Form B (image 560)

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

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

Libraries and archives
State Archives of Aargau

Societies
Central Swiss Society for Family History (ZGF)