Lauwil, Basel-Landschaft, Switzerland Genealogy

Description: Guide to Lauwil, 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 Lauwil is in the Waldenburg district and the Basel-Landschaft canton. It is located at an elevation of 637 m (2,090 ft) in a depression in the Jura Mountains. The municipality includes the village of Lauwil and the Bez hamlet.

Lauwil (as of 2009) has an area of 7.27 km² (2.81 square miles). The land use is divided up as follows:
 * 47.7% - agricultural purposes
 * 49.5% - forested
 * 2.5% - settled (buildings or roads)
 * 0.3% - rivers or lakes

History
In 1194, Lauwil was first mentioned by the name of Luiwilre. Lauwil is in the Waldenburg district and the Basel-Landschaft canton.

The population history of Lauwil is: 1805 - 306 inhabitants 1834 - 400 inhabitants 1850 - 508 inhabitants 1860 - 489 inhabitants 1870 - 441 inhabitants 1880 - 424 inhabitants 1888 - 467 inhabitants 1900 - 449 inhabitants 1910 - 448 inhabitants 1920 - 427 inhabitants 1930 - 364 inhabitants 1941 - 342 inhabitants 1950 - 330 inhabitants 1960 - 340 inhabitants 1970 - 307 inhabitants 1980 - 287 inhabitants 1990 - 291 inhabitants 2000 - 307 inhabitants 2021 - 307 inhabitants

Per the 2000 census:
 * 14.3% were Roman Catholic
 * 68.7% were Swiss Reformed Church
 * 2.28% were Other Christian Church

Spiritually, Lauwil belonged to the Reigoldswil parish. The church of Saint-Romai (Saint-Rémy) was the heart of the parish. Since 1765, Lauwil belonged to the Bretzwil Protestant parish.

Church Records
Lauwil belongs to the parish of Bretzwil. For church records, see Bretzwil.

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

The following censuses are available from FamilySearch for Lauwil:
 * 1815 (images 426-435)

Surnames
The following surnames held citizenship in Lauwil 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)