 I have been researching my family history as every generation of it was born not only in a different country, but often on different continents as well. In the 1500's officials in western Europe attempted to purge the group through massive killings due to their religious beliefs and cultural traditions, they were relentlessly persecuted throughout the 16th century until the 1700's in various parts of Switzerland but were welcomed in the Netherlands, They then began to settle in areas of Russia and the Ukraine by invitation during the 1800's but suffered severe persecution including mass murders and expropriation of their land through the Russian Civil War in the 1900's during the Bolshevik Revolution. Many were also sent to Siberia and Kazakhstan and many others to gulags (forced labour camps) by Stalin through mass ethnic deportations during the Second World War. Many fled to Canada, the U.S. (known as the Amish) and Paraguay (where my parents were born and raised). Because they were often forced to flee with nothing but their families, they learned to live a simpler life, living off the land, often land that others found of no use. Trying to document all this history and culture that was adopted along the way has been an interesting challenge. I'm curious to see where this leads.
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