Identification of Ethnic Settlement Regions: Amish‐Mennonites in Ohio

Abstract

Abstract The persistence of ethnic settlement in rural regions of the United States is well documented. Yet, there has been little discussion of techniques which allow the identification of the geographic extent and concentration of distinctive ethnic populations. Amish‐Mennonite settlement constitutes a unique component of the rural landscape. A wide range of visual clues alert the observer to their presence, but without painstaking field surveys it is difficult to establish their geographic extent. This paper examines four approaches to the identification of Amish‐Mennonite settlement. These are county‐based population data on religious affiliation, the location of Amish church districts and Mennonite churches, topographic maps, and surnames and cadastral maps. Topographic maps proved unsuitable, but each of the other approaches produced reasonable approximations of the areal extent of Amish‐Mennonite settlement. Surnames and cadastral maps present good possibilities for the identification of other ethnic populations in rural regions.