Amish Voices: A Collection of Amish Writings

Igou, Brad, compiler. Amish Voices: A Collection of Amish Writings. Harrisonburg, VA: Herald Press, 2019.

Brad Igou collected writings from Amish publications on such topics as Amish history, marriage and family, work, church, discipline (especially church discipline), clothing, aging and death, and war and peace. While many people think they know what Amish believe, this book shares their beliefs in their own words. While I enjoyed the book, coverage was uneven. Some topics such as rumspringa which interest the "English" barely received treatment. I would have enjoyed more perspectives from nineteenth century Amish life, but I really do not know if the same type periodical literature or even diaries and letters survive that would allow the Amish to share their story from that era. I received an advance copy through NetGalley with the expectation of an honest review.

The Amish Cookie Club

Price, Sarah. The Amish Cookie Club. New York: Zebra/Kensington, 2019.

Myrna's gift is organization; however, what is organized to her may not be organized to someone else. Reorganizing merchandise leads to her job loss. She ends up back in her father's hardware store in the back. One of the Amish women who bakes cookies with her mother suggests Myrna might be able to help a widower by caring for his four children and keeping house while he minds the farm. Zeke makes it clear he lacks interest in marrying again. The rumor mill suggests he does not believe in medicine and that he refused medical treatment for his late wife. Everyone who encounters him finds him to very nice and caring and don't understand how he might be so conservative as to refuse medical treatments but still allow running water and other more progressive things. The Amish women wonder almost immediately if Myrna and Zeke will marry. While this is not great literature, it is the perfect escape. It was the right book at the right time--a clean, wholesome romance. This review is based on an electronic copy received through NetGalley with the expectation of an honest review.

Which Sign Do You Follow?

I'll admit that I've never really followed astrological signs that much but apparently there is a debate about whether one should follow the sidereal or the tropical zodiac. Apparently if we follow the sidereal zodiac of Eastern origin, most of us would be under a different sign than we'd believed we were under all our lives. For example, my sign would no longer be Aquarius but Capricorn.

As I began to think of this, I remembered my first encounter with something of this nature. It arose out of my own genealogical research. I looked at my great grandfather's birth in his family Bible. The entries for each child read something like "Firstname" was born on "date" under the sign "name of sign." It was of course written in German script instead of English, but instead of seeing the standard tropical zodiac sign that I'd expected with his birth date, it gave a different one. As I began to examine the other members in his family, I knew that there was some other zodiac system in place because they all differed. My curiosity was peaked, and I had to do a little research to figure out exactly why all the signs were different. I discovered that the Amish used "moon signs" which were important for planting instead of the traditional astrological ones.

I believe that we'd all discover that we had three different signs if we chose to add the moon ones -- the traditional Tropical Zodiac signs of Western origin, the sidereal signs of Eastern origin, and the moon signs that were important to planting.

National Library Week Tribute #2: An Amish Library in Holmes County

Many of you know that I have Amish lines that lived in Holmes and Wayne Counties in Ohio in the 19th century. On one of my trips to that area, I spent quite a bit of time in the courthouses and in the cemeteries of the area. I had gone to visit with an "English cousin" who lives in the area and has quite a bit of interaction with the Amish. She told me about an Amish library that was in Berlin in Holmes County. She made the necessary arrangements so that we could visit it. It is in the basement of a barn beside the Keim lumber yard there. Most of the books and periodicals related to the history of the Amish. It was a quite extensive collection although I'd already utilized many of the resources at other libraries. I was so surprised to find the library. I was even more surprised that they had a photocopier. It was, of course, powered by a generator rather than electricity. My cousin and I made copies of several articles. This library was a pleasant surprise on my research trip!

DNA & the Amish

Thanks to the Meme going around, I've discovered a wonderful post by The Genetic Genealogist about the Amish and DNA. There is an interesting summary of results for the Yoder project. My Yoder line is 25126 in the numbering system utilized by the Yoder Newsletter. This is derived from the book Amish and Amish-Mennonite Genealogies by Hugh F. Gingerich and Rachel W. Kreider. This is one of the must-have books for those of us with Amish ancestry. Thanks, Randy, for choosing The Genetic Genealogist as one of your five thinking bloggers.