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.

Getting Started
If you are new to Swiss research, you should watch this introductory course. Then study the articles on church records and civil registration, as almost all of your research will be in those two record groups.
 * Introduction to Swiss Research
 * Switzerland Civil Registration
 * Switzerland Church 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.

Canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden (Wikipedia)

Districts in Appenzell Innerrhoden
There are six Bezirke (districts, equivalent to municipalities) in Canton Appenzell Innerrhoden. See each district page for information on records:

Civil Registration
Civil registration began in Appenzell Innerrhoden Canton in 1876. To understand the records available, read the Wiki article, Switzerland Civil Registration.
 * Addresses for Civil Registration (ZivilStandesamt) Offices (.pdf)
 * You will be able to write your request in German with the help of the German Letter Writing Guide.

Church Records
FamilySearch has digitized records for the entire canton. These records can be accessed from the FamilySearch Catalog (click on Places within Switzerland, Appenzell Innerrhoden to select the parish). There may be restrictions on viewing these records. See the municipality pages within Appenzell Innerrhoden for more information.

There are no indexes of church records.

For information on the coverage and content of church records, read Switzerland Church Records.

Writing for Church Records

 * You will be able to write your request in German with the help of the German Letter Writing Guide.

Reading the Records

 * German Genealogical Word List
 * [[Media:Swiss_Genealogical_Word_List_approved.pdf|Swiss Dialect Genealogical Word List]]
 * Reading German Handwritten Records
 * Lesson 1: Kurrent Letters
 * Lesson 2: Making Words in Kurrent
 * Lesson 3: Reading Kurrent Documents
 * Old German Script
 * Part 1
 * Part 2
 * Part 3 (German Church and Civil Records)

Search Strategy
This search strategy will help you determine what to write for. Limit tour requests to just one of these steps at a time. Once you have established that the parish is cooperative and perhaps more willing to do more extensive research (for a fee), you might be able to ask them for more at a time.
 * Search for the relative or ancestor you selected.
 * When you find his birth record, search for the births of his brothers and sisters.
 * Next, search for the marriage of his parents. The marriage record will have information that will often help you find the birth records of the parents.
 * You can estimate the ages of the parents and determine a birth year to search for their birth records.
 * Search the death registers for all known family members.
 * Repeat this process for both the father and the mother, starting with their birth records, then their siblings' births, then their parents' marriages, and so on.
 * If earlier generations (parents, grandparents, etc.) do not appear in the records, search neighboring parishes.