Pennsylvania German

Pennsylvania German, 17th- and 18th-century German-speaking settlers in Pennsylvania and their descendants. Emigrating from southern Germany (Palatinate, Bavaria, Saxony, etc.) and Switzerland, they settled primarily in the southeastern section of Pennsylvania, where they practiced any of several slightly different forms of Anabaptist faith, mostly Amish and Mennonite. Their descendants, some of whom participate only reluctantly in modern life, live mainly in Northampton, Berks, Lancaster, Lehigh, Montgomery, Bucks, York, and other counties of Pennsylvania, as well...