I new a man that had his casket built by the Amish. He said it was cheaper than non-Amish casket prices. He uses it for a bookcase temporarily, but he says he’s ready for when he needs to be buried in it. Unusual fella.
I know several younger Amish adults who have their teeth pulled and dentures. In most cases it was because of poor dental care in childhood. It is more economical to have dentures than to deal with long term dental care and pain. The dentures were in most cases made by Amish denture makers. I am a taxi driver and have taken people to these appointments.
You show a lot of respect for the Amish, that's not very common, but certainly praiseworthy, in our society where if you're even a bit different you're shunned.
My grandparents ( not Amish) both had full dentures when they got married at age 18 and 21, this was in the early 1950s. It's just something that was done in the past because they had poor diet and it was cheaper to do that, they were slightly less vain back then lol. The Amish do it for the same reason.
Root canals are expensive! Of course that wasn't an option until relatively recently, and my parents' generation frequently suffered through having rotten teeth pulled as children. I was a teenager before it became common practice in my town to routinely clean teeth of plaque and tartar. I hadn't had any teeth pulled, but had suffered through at least 25 fillings by the time I was 17. We also didn't have fluoridated water until then. So those are my thoughts on that myth. The coffin one made me laugh because I was horrified as a young child when I overheard my aunt, uncle, and uncle's parents seemingly plan his future funeral when they would have his legs cut off so he would fit into his coffin. I'm not sure they knew anything about the Amish, but uncle was 6'5", so it was a natural joke. I just didn't know that at the time, and they didn't know I had overheard the joking around. When my uncle eventually died some years ago, his coffin was long enough to hold his remains. As for the myth about marrying siblings, well I just happen to have a funny story to go with that, too. Another of my aunts is the family genealogist. She was married to my mother's brother. They used to travel all over the US and Canada to research our ancestry. She told me she was shocked to learn that she and her husband are related! It's weird, because her people had settled in one area of North America, and my mom's people had settled in another part of North America. But at some point, someone from both families had moved to a completely different area, and married one another. Then their child who was ancestor to both had moved, and that ancestor's children had dispersed to various areas. There were crossings from what became the US and then into Canada, and back and forth. Eventually both families ended up in Michigan, in the same area, ignorant of their common ancestor. It took my aunt some getting used to, but as my uncle pointed out, that was so many generations previous that they weren't incestuously related. And as she continued to research each branch of the living family, she discovered other similar connections. I suppose if your parents researched far enough back in Poland they might find a common ancestor, too. It's almost inevitable, in a sort of Seven Degrees from Kevin Bacon kind of way 😂
Here in Coshocton County,Ohio the genetic disorders among the amish have gotten so bad the county had to hire a special nurse just to deal with the problem.The amish dont marry outside the church,so the gene pool is limited.Eventually pretty much everyone is related somehow,this is probably were the sibling marrying myths get started.It's not a matter of siblings having children or getting married,it's a problem of being a cloistered society with no fresh blood coming in..Coshocton and Holmes counties and even Wayne county to some extent have problems with birth defects among the amish..English dont understand so they just figure it has to be a sibling marrying problem
Most likely outsiders think think this due to it happened years ago among higher society (1800s or further back) and they had MANY health issues/problems.
Do the Amish do traditional funerals and practices when preparing bodies, like embalming? Do they use a regular funeral home to prepare the body or do they do it within their community? Perhaps a video on Amish funerals and how they prepare the body etc if you have not already. love the content, you have the most comprehensive collection of information on the Amish that I can find online.
Most likely they don't. I'm not Amish, I DO NOT BELIEVE in embalming, personally. I have had to go to great lengths to make sure that my wishes are held true. From my understanding in the English world, it is very uncommon for someone not to be embalmed. According to a lawyer. Lawyer's 1st question was, "Are you Amish?" The place where I plan to have my remains placed, have to find out if I can do it without the cement casing. Some areas do not allow it, where others say it's fine.
My wife and I are not related for 19 generations that we could find. I have some ancestors from Krombach Bavaria who came over in the 1800s and her family have Pensylvania Dutch. Neither of us are Amish but we are related.
. Sometimes they do marry first cousins. My mom‘s family came from the horse and buggy Mennonite settlement Shanadoah valley Virginia and two of her brothers married their first cousins and it is very common in that community.
I dated someone many years ago that grew up close to an Amish community in Ontario and he told me they asked him for his sperm once. I actually don’t remember if they actually wanted him to have sex with one of the girls in the community, or they just wanted his sperm but they explain to him they needed to diversify the gene pool in the community. My friend said he actually thought about it but in his heart he knew he was gay and he figured they probably didn’t have a very warm outlook towards the gay community and if it indeed is hereditary (which personally I think it’s doubtful) he didn’t want his potentially gay child to grow up in a community that wouldn’t accept him. I remember visiting him and noticing a lot of the Amish children had hearing aids. Very old looking technology hearing aids… The big brown ones that go on the outside of your ear. We always assumed their hearing problems were by product of inbreeding TBH.
Yes we do we bruderhof in England which obviously is in Europe won't say EU as we've left, they dress similar speak a German dialect , theirs 3 communitys in the south.
I think they hear some interesting things on the tours sometimes. I believe some are more accurate than others, depending on the guide's knowledge and background.
Dentures are not a bad idea... it makes you healthier. Everyone else fights nature to keep our teeth in modern cities. 😬 I know a non-Amish whose teeth were bad and his health improved because he pulled them all at 42 years old. I kinda wish I had gone that route since 70 thousand dollars for implants is too much and owning the real thing is an expense either in time or money with our modern diet.
There are doctors that are more holistic in their treatment meaning they look at the whole body to determine what's truly wrong rather than treating symptoms or just the one disease they look at what may have set up why they got sick. Kinda like removing tonsils to prevent more infections. And also they look at what might cause future illness and to preventative measures like change in diet or lifestyle. Also they use herbs or certain foods to prevent or cure disease. Much like "English" doctors use to.
I saw a title for a video about things Amish women don't want you to know and didn't click because I also don't want to know those things. #clickbaitbackfire Thanks for being respectful instead of making a dollar off fearmongering like some people out there.
Mifflin county native here- almost all of the Amish I see where I work have either REALLY nice teeth or bad teeth. The Nebraska Amish typically have the worst teeth, while “black tops” have the nicest
I feel l must preface my question first... I was born in Brooklyn, NY and lived on the outskirts of a Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, l didn’t know the men weren’t allowed to shake hands with women. I was 13 and it was 1973 and l embarrassed myself by offering my hand to shake. The man didn’t say anything, l assumed he didn’t notice my outstretched arm... So, l cleared my throat very loudly trying to get his attention. Then l asked he was a “Germaphobe”. Honestly, I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful, I was just nitwit kid. So here’s my question, Are Amish men allowed to shake hands with English women? Or even women in general?
Again when I was a driver for the Amish I had some teeth pulled by an Amish man who had gone to a votech and got dental training but though he wasn't technically an official dentist; and I'd like to add that I know an Amish casket maker and he makes them to order and also makes urns for cremations
I heard that at Amish Acers. Was to funny as I was there with a ex Amish friend. She said we need to get are money back with all this false good. She even spoke Penn/ dutch to a girl in the gift shop and the Amish grill said I am not Amish I just dress this way for the job that was 20 years ago
The false claims they don't pay taxes is taken out of context. Amish do not believe in insurance they believe on taking care of their families and community. Therefore they by law don't pay into or draw from social security, unemployment and workman's compensation.
Very interesting. The only slight info I think it's a bit different simply due to times changing is that years ago the Amish war marrying 3rd, 4th, etc cousins. It's why the community was hit especially hard by neuromuscular diseases. I know there are several clinics that have been opened to both treat and educate in different Amish communities. It's why now there are a lot more interactions with other church districts When children come of a "courting" age. Also helping this is they have a lot more options as Most Amish have very large families, and they've created a larger pool of non related people to choose from. So while this video is 100% accurate today, a few decades ago, when I 1st hit Amish country, things were a bit different
the last myth might actually be a manipulation of old burial traditions from England and Europe where feet and legs were broken or lopped off and is not Amish at all…
I visited several Amish communities and stayed with different Amish families for a week or so. I also noticed that quite young people had dentures, and as Eric explains in the video they also explained that they had dentures because they think it is cheaper anf more practical than repairing teeth.
@@AmishAmerica I stayed for a week with quite liberal Michigan Amish in Michigan not too far away from Marion. But the family where I stay moved to North West Pennylvania recently. I also stayed with new Order Amish in Ohio somewhere South of Lima for a couple of days. For a bit longer than a week I stayed with a family at Brownsville, Kentucky in Peace Valley (Peace Valley Lane) who are like Amish but actually are members of the Caneyville Christian Community. The wife there was a daughter of Bryce Geyser and the husband had several family members who had joined of the Noah Hoover Mennonites at Scottsville, Kentucky which I also visited. I also saw her grandfather, the father of Bryce Geyser, when I visited Old German Baptist Brethren in Indiana. I also visited Schmiedeleut Oilers in Manitoba, Dariusleut in Saskatchewan and Elemendorf and Altona Hutterites in Minnesota. I stayed with Hutterites all together more than four months. I visited different Russian Mennonite communities near Cuauhtémoc, Mexico, but also Russian Mennonite North of that. I visited even the last horse and buggy Russian Mennonite in Northern Mexico. The Bruderhof people in upstate New York are also on my list. Because I'm from the Palatinate in Germany I understand Pennsylvania German quite well and speak it but mixed with my Palatinate dialect and some Standard German words. Pennsylvania German speakers normally understand my dialect very well. I'm also able to understand clear and not too fast spoken Hutterisch and Plautdietsch but I'm not able to speak these dialects.
Wow - you have gotten a pretty good experience there. I don't want to ask which was your "favorite" at least not in those words - but if you don't mind which place was the most interesting or where did you let's say learn the most during your time there?
I just came across your channel and I'm enthralled. I am a huge admirer of the Amish. My husband's family is from PA not far from Lancaster and they themselves were Quakers, and his grandmother had several not Amish, but Mennonite friends. We often take weekend trips to Lancaster since we live in Northern Virginia. But as you mentioned, years ago as a child we had visited a place in Lancaster that did say the Amish believed having your photo taken would steal your soul. I was about 10 when I heard this. Please correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't have to do with vanity? Again, I just want to say I so enjoy your channel and it's almost Friday so sending weekend blessings to you.
Super - glad you found it! You are in a great spot to visit some Amish places in northern VA so close to PA. Also VA has around 10 of its own settlements, some of them worth a visit (I plan to do a vid on Amish in VA pretty soon). Also I'm glad you asked that about the "steal your soul" belief. This came up a couple years ago when there was a video of a tour guide in Tennessee telling visitors just that. I actually went ahead and wrote a post on it on the website, maybe I'll cover it in a video too at some point, but here it is (the short answer is no they don't believe it will steal their souls, they "officially" avoid photos for reasons of not promoting the self, and "unofficially" some/many get a kick out of seeing themselves in photos): amishamerica.com/do-amish-believe-taking-a-photo-captures-their-souls/ Thanks for the kind words and blessings back at you :)
@@AmishAmerica thank you and I'm looking forward to watching more videos. I believe there's an Amish community down in Charlottesville VA. I'd love to know others so I'm waiting on that video. I also joined Lovinas Amish Kitchen. I'm enjoying that very much. ✌🏻&❤
I must have had that same tour guide. My mom and I took a tour of Lancaster, PA Amish country, and the tour guide cautioned everyone not to take pictures of the Amish because they believed their souls would be stolen. Perhaps he just made that up to be interesting.
Hi. I read about "pow-powing" or healing in "Rosanna Of The Amish" by Joseph Yoder. Can we hear something about that? The book explains but not clearly enough for me. This is a great book, BTW to get general information about this culture.
So I don't have a video planned on that one right now, but did already cover it on the website. So in a nutshell, this and other "folk medicine" for lack of a better term is still found among Amish, but is a minority practice. More progressive Amish would not practice this but you may find it in some plainer segments. I go into it in point 3 on this post: amishamerica.com/5-unconventional-amish-health-practices/
