Gebenstorf Parish, Aargau, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Gebenstorf 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 Gebenstorf is in the district of Baden in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. It is situated in the Baden district, at the confluence of the Reuss and Limmat rivers into the Aare river. It includes the villages of Gebenstorf and Vogelsang and the hamlets of Reuss, Petersberg, and Schwabenberg.

Gebenstorf (as of 2006) has an area of 5.7 km² (2.2 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 29% - agricultural purposes
 * 41.6% - forested
 * 24.4% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 5% - non-productive (rivers or lakes)

History
In 1247, Gebenstorf was first mentioned by the name of Gobistorf.

It was a township in the county of Baden from 1415 until 1798. The village of Wil and the factory center of Turgi separated from Gebenstorf to form an independent municipality in 1884.

The population history of Gebenstorf is: 1798 - 630 inhabitants 1880 - 2,435 inhabitants 1888 - 1,570 inhabitants 1900 - 1,574 inhabitants 1950 - 2,110 inhabitants 1990 - 4,079 inhabitants 2000 - 4,182 inhabitants 2020 - 5,514 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 40.7% were Roman Catholic
 * 34.2% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
 * 0.12% belonged to the Christian Catholic Church

In 1330, the Habsburgs transferred the land and the church (attested in 1247) which they owned in Gebenstorf, in their bailiwick of Baden, to the Abbey of Königsfelden, which from then on was the main landowner. A third of the population remained Catholic (pastoral responsibility assumed by the parish priest of Birmenstorf) after the Reformation and the church served both denominations. A Catholic church was constructed in 1889 and a new Reformed church in 1891. Founded in 1911, there has been a Catholic parish in Gebenstorf-Turgi since 1950 has included the parishes of Gibenstorf and Turgi as a single Catholic parish.

Church Records
The parish of Gebenstorf was first mentioned in 1247. After the Reformation, about 2/3 of the residents were Reformed, as was the church. It includes the municipality of Turgi.

The remaining 1/3 were Catholic, belonging to the parish of Birmenstorf. For Catholics, see Birmenstorf for more information.

Original church records are located onsite at the Gebenstorf parish church office. Microfilm copies of the following church records are available onsite at the Aargau State Archives:


 * Baptisms, marriages 1578-1605
 * Baptisms 1608-1635; marriages 1612-1634; burials 1608-1620
 * Baptisms, marriages 1635-1733; burials 1651-1734
 * Baptisms 1732-1763; marriages, burials, confirmations 1732-1752
 * Baptisms 1763-1816; non-resident citizen baptisms 1818-1875
 * Baptisms 1817-1873
 * Baptisms 1874-1875
 * Marriages 1752-1816; marriages non-resident citizens 1844-1854
 * Marriages 1817-1852
 * Marriages 1853-1875
 * Burials 1752-1816; burials non-resident citizens 1838-1875
 * Burials 1817-1875

Post-1875 church records are found onsite at the Gebenstorf parish church office.
 * Family book 1763-1773
 * Family book 1781-1788
 * Family book 1790-1797
 * Family book 1798-1809
 * Family book 1811-1836
 * Family book Birmenstorf 1843-1875
 * Family book 1844-1872
 * Marriages, non-resident citizens 1817-1873
 * Post-1875 church records

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

The following censuses are available from FamilySearch for Gebenstorf:
 * 1837 (images 457-471; includes Turgi)
 * 1850: Form A (images 725-760)
 * 1850: Form B (images 761-763)

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Gebenstorf 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)