Appenzell Innerrhoden Canton, Switzerland Genealogy

Guide to Appenzell Innerrhoden canton ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

History
The name Appenzell means cell or estate of the abbot. This refers to the Abbey of St. Gall, which exerted a great influence on the area. By the middle of the 11th century the abbots of St. Gall had established their power in the land later called Appenzell. Appenzell Innerrhoden is a German speaking canton and it joined the Swiss confederation in 1513. Appenzell Innerrhoden was the last canton in Switzerland to grant women the right to vote on local issues, being forced to do so only in 1990. A centuries-old law forbidding women from voting was changed in 1991, when Switzerland's federal court ordered the canton to grant women the right to vote.