San Nazzaro Parish, Ticino, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to San Nazzaro Parish, Ticino, 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 San Nazzaro is in the Locarno district and the Ticino canton. It is located in the middle of the Gambarogno Riviera, east of Lake Maggiore. San Nazzaro included the Casenzano, Taverna and Vairano hamlets. San Nazzaro has an area of 5.53 km² (2.14 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 11.8% - agricultural purposes
 * 75.8% - forested
 * 12.1% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 1.8% - rivers & lakes
 * 4.3% - non-productive

History
In 1258, San Nazzaro was first mentioned with the name of sancto Nazario. San Nazzaro is in the Locarno district and the Ticino canton. San Nazzaro merged into a new municipality of Gambarogno on 25 April 2010. Other former municipalities merged include:
 * Caviano
 * Contone
 * Gerra (Gambarogno)
 * Indemini
 * Magadino
 * Piazzogna
 * Sant'Abbondio
 * Vira (Gambarogno)

The population history of San Nazzaro is: 1591 - 375 inhabitants 1683 - 346 inhabitants 1795 - 340 inhabitants 1850 - 477 inhabitants 1900 - 314 inhabitants 1950 - 291 inhabitants 2000 - 641 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 67.1% were Roman Catholic
 * 14.5% were Swiss Reformed Church
 * 14.5% belong to another church

In 1558, The parish of San Nazzaro was formed when it broke off from the mother church of Vira. In 1258, the parish church of Saints-Nazaire-et-Celse was mentioned. It was then renovated and enlarged in 1790.

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

The 1808 Ticino census for San Nazzaro was divided into fracions:
 * Vairano can be accessed here.

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in San Nazzaro prior to 1875, along with any known soprannomi. For more information about soprannomi, click here.

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

Libraries and archives
State Archives of Ticino

Societies
Società Genealogica della Svizzera Italiana (SGSI)