Religion in Family History

Last January I wrote a post Amish States where I shared a map of what states in the US have Amish communities. At that time if I had written a post about Amish in Canada I would have had to title it Amish Province. However, since that time Amish communities have been founded in additional provinces of Canada.

The first province where Amish settled in Canada was Ontario. The Amish have been in the Kitchener/Waterloo area since 1824. Today there are several Amish communities in the area that is circled in the map above.

The Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College estimates that there are over 5,000 Amish living in Ontario.

In 2015 an Amish settlement was started in New Brunswick. The settlement is adjacent to the Fort Fairfield Amish Community in Maine. You can see Fort Fairfield marked on the map above.

In 2015 there was also an Amish settlement started in Vermont which brings the number of states with Amish settlements to 31.

Earlier this year there were also two Amish settlements started on Prince Edward Island. Of course, PEI is best known for Anne of Green Gables.

One of the settlements is at Bridgetown and Dundas. The settlers have moved from Ontario in search of farmland that they can acquire at a good price. Young families are unable to afford the high prices of land in Ontario. This is a common migration factor for the Amish in the US as well.

The other settlement is at Summerville and New Perth. It will be interesting to see if additional settlements are founded in the coming years as the government of PEI has changed several laws to accommodate Amish beliefs.

Now that I most likely have distant cousins living on PEI it gives me another reason to visit. I would really like to visit the Anne of Green Gables sites some day.

There are now three provinces of Canada with Amish settlements. It will be interesting to see where more new settlements are founded. Perhaps Nova Scotia or one of the Prairie Provinces will be next.

Steven

This post is part of my Religion in Family History series. Click on the link for a list of more posts in the series.