Waiting to be filled near Mount Hope, Ohio

I’m back now from my multi-week Amish journey, spanning five states. This trip took in everything from palm trees and short sleeves in Florida to a layer of snow on the ground yesterday morning in Pennsylvania. After logging around 3000 road miles, I am ready to kick my feet up for a bit! I planned to visit just 5, but ended up visiting 7 communities:…

In tragic instances dating back to at least 2004, otherwise healthy Amish boys and girls have died suddenly while playing, with no clear explanation as to why. These cases occurred not in one community, but in multiple states including Pennsylvania, Delaware, Kentucky, and Iowa. Now, this mystery spanning 15+ years has been solved. Research looking at two extended families has unlocked the genetic cause of…

The latest edition of the Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies was recently released. It can be viewed in full here. This open source journal features academic articles on the Amish, Old Order Mennonites and other Plain Anabaptist groups, and also contains regular book reviews. This is the seventh issue since the journal debuted in 2013. All previous issues can be found here and are available online for…