Baden Parish, Aargau, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Baden 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 town and municipality of Baden is in the district of Baden and the Aargau canton. It consists of the core settlement to the left of the Limmat in the Lägern gorge, the districts of Kappelerhof, Allmend, Meierhof, and Chrüzliberg. It also includes Dättwil which was incorporated in 1962.

Baden (as of 2004/09) has an area of 13.17 km² (5.08 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 8.6% - agricultural purposes
 * 55.8% - forested
 * 33.7% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 1.8% - non-productive

History
In Roman times, Baden was first mentioned by the name of Aquae Helveticae. It was then mentioned in 1040 as Baden.

Dättwil merged into the Baden municipality in 1962. Other municipalities merged include:
 * Baden

Until the formation of a separate Catholic Parish in 1966, Ennetbaden was a parish in Baden.

The population history of Baden is: 1850 - 3,159 inhabitants 1860 - 3,332 inhabitants 1870 - 3,786 inhabitants 1880 - 4,059 inhabitants 1888 - 4,215 inhabitants 1900 - 6,489 inhabitants 1910 - 8,732 inhabitants 1920 - 9,704 inhabitants 1930 - 10,624 inhabitants 1941 - 10,901 inhabitants 1950 - 12,127 inhabitants 1960 - 14,553 inhabitants 1970 - 14,115 inhabitants 1980 - 13,870 inhabitants 1990 - 15,718 inhabitants 2000 - 16,270 inhabitants 2010 - 17,828 inhabitants 2015 - 19,012 inhabitants 2020 - 19,621 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 43.4% were Roman Catholic
 * 28.5% were Swiss Reformed Church
 * 0.19% were Christian Catholic Church

The parish of Baden was mentioned as early as 1241. In 1624, the city established the chapter of canons of the Assumption (removed in 1875). The Capuchin convent of Saints John and Catherine, established in 1588 to the south of the old town, was suppressed in 1841 and demolished in 1855. The Capuchin convent of the Coronation of the Virgin (Klösterli), in the southern suburb of west, was preseved from 1612/1613 to 1841 and from 1843 to 1867. Of the dozen chapels that once existed, only these five remain: Saint-Sébastien (1505), the Three Kings (around 1100, rebuilt in 1881), Saint-Nicolas (13th century), Sainte-Anne (1482), and Notre-Dame de Wil (pilgrimage chapel, 1660). In accordance with the arrangements of the Peace of Aarau in 1712, a reformed church could be built in Baden in 1714, but it was at first only used by the hosts of the baths and the staff of the bailiwick.

Catholic
The Catholic parish in Baden, called Mariä Himmelfahrt, was first mentioned in 1241. It includes the former municipality of Dättwil, and included the municipality of Ennetbaden until 1966.

The following records are available onsite at the Baden city archive. Microfilm and digital copies of church records are available online at FamilySearch (with possible viewing restrictions):
 * Baptisms 1573-1632; marriages 1586-1631; burials 1586-1632 (all with gaps) (images 4-222)
 * Baptisms, marriages, burials 1632-1723; confirmations 1642-1772 (with gaps) (images 224-799)
 * Baptisms 1724-1814 (images 801-1092)
 * Baptisms 1817-1875 (images 443-710)
 * Marriages 1724-1835 (images 1094-1156)
 * Marriages 1817-1852 (images 712-765)
 * Marriages 1853-1875 (images 766-920)
 * Marriages non-resident citizens 1817-1875 (images 922-1046)
 * Burials 1724-1837 (images 4-123)
 * Burials 1817-1853 (images 1048-1152); Burials 1854-1875 (images 4-128)

Post-1875 church records, as well as the following church records, are found onsite at the Baden Mariä Himmelfahrt parish church office.
 * Baptisms 1787-1795
 * Baptisms 1805-1811
 * Baptisms 1812-1817
 * Baptisms 1815-1837
 * Baptisms 1817-1818
 * Baptisms 1819-1826
 * Baptisms 1826-1847
 * Baptisms 1848-1862
 * Baptisms 1863-1880
 * Baptisms non-resident citizens 1684-1831
 * Family book 1710-1761
 * Family book 1745-1862
 * Family book 1814-1836
 * Family book 1815-1870

Reformed
The Reformed church in Baden was built in 1714. The following records are available onsite at the Baden city archive. Microfilm and digital copies of church records are available online at FamilySearch (with possible viewing restrictions):
 * Baptisms 1714-1791; marriages 1721-1791; burials 1724-1791; confirmations 1753-1790 (images 125-278)
 * Baptisms, burials 1792-1816; confirmations 1792-1875 (images 280-366)
 * Baptisms 1817-1875 (images 130-317)
 * Marriages 1792-1816 (images 368-441)
 * Marriages 1817-1852 (images 319-375)
 * Marriages 1853-1875 (images 376-468)
 * Marriages, non-resident citizens 1817-1850 (images 470-612)
 * Marriages, non-resident citizens 1851-1865 (images 613-744)
 * Marriages, non-resident citizens 1866-1875 (images 745-887)
 * Burials 1817-1875 (images 889-1005)

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

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

Dättwil was a separate municipality until 1962, when it became part of Baden. During these censuses, it was enumerated separately. The following censuses are available from FamilySearch for Baden and Dättwil:

Baden

 * 1837 (images 368-390)
 * 1850: Form A (images 502-570)
 * 1850: Form B (images 571-572)

Dättwil

 * 1837 (images 417-421)
 * 1850: Form A (images 638-648)
 * 1850: Form B (image 649)

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Baden 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)