It has been almost ten years since I posted my introduction to this blog. I don’t know where all those years have gone, but I thought it would be fun to go back and find several popular posts from each year and feature them here with links. I will do this over the next several posts.
December 18, 2009: More About Anabaptist Ancestors is about David and me traveling through Switzerland and happening upon the Castle Thun. We climbed up into a room just below a tower where there were instruments of torture displayed on the walls. I suddenly got goosebumps and said out loud, “My ancestors were tortured here.” David said, “You don’t know that.” But somehow I knew, right down into my bones. And sure enough, later we found out that indeed Anabaptists had been tortured in the Castle Thun.
January 4, 2010: Homemade Fun is about the kinds of fun I remember having in my childhood.
May 2, 2010: Joining the Amish outlines the difficulties of someone from the outside world joining an Amish community, including several examples of people who did join.
July 23, 2010: The beginning post of a four-part series called The Ramifications of Wisconsin v. Yoder about the issues surrounding the U.S. Supreme Court granting the Amish an exemption to compulsory education laws in 1972.
January 24, 2011: First Book Talk. My book launch for Why I Left the Amish took place in Burlington, Vermont surrounded by friends.
March 23, 2011: Amish Genetics. This post answers a question from a reader about Amish people marrying relatives.
October 23, 2011: Pride and Prejudices among the Amish is about how Amish communities tend to look down on other Amish communities.
To be continued…
I was at that castle in Thun, Switzerland. When I walked past the dungeon and saw the fake person slumped on the floor with a partially eaten broadloaf and tin cup of water next to a rubber rat, it gave me a feeling of horror knowing that my ancestors could have been imprisoned in that very cell.
Aleta, it’s an eerie feeling, isn’t it? I’ve visited more ancestral sites since then, and it is truly amazing how that feeling never goes away.
Thank you for your comment, Aleta, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Saloma, I had never read your introduction to About Amish. I liked it! I”m so glad you started it and have continued all these years. have learned so much about the Amish way of life through your blogs for which i thank you. Reading your first blog I was wondering have you found your answers to the questions that you put out there and are there answers? Are some things lost with those who lived it and are no longer here to tell their tale? Have you found answers to questions like why some traditions carried over while others as you put it “fell to the way side?” The question I find intriguing is why there are no more Amish in Europe? Could it have been possible that they all found their way to America? Did those left behind give up their faith and their way of living or were they imprisoned or put to death. In other words totally wiped out?
Pamela, these are great questions. I’d like to answer them in a blog post at another time, if that is okay with you. I have a lot to say about those last three questions.
Wishing you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving!