In 1987 Isaac Zurcher published in German a transcription of a complete set of remaining manuscripts of the 1693 Amish Division, housed at the Mennonite archives at Jeanguisboden, retaining the "rough-hewn grammar and dialect usage close to the originals." This English translation by Roth preserves "as much of the original style and content as possible" of Zurcher's German transcription with the exception of two long letters by Jakob Ammann (#3) and Ulli Ammann (#12), which Roth chose to base on the German transcription of my great, great, grandfather Bishop Joseph Stuckey, in his 1871 compilation "Eine Begebenheit die sich in Deutschland und in der Schweiz von 1693 bis 1700 zugetragen hat." It is quite gratifying to know that Bishop Stuckey's transcribed German version from his 1871 edition is useful and valid today, given that the self educated Bishop Stuckey was provided only two months of formal education as a youth in Butler County Ohio. Zurcher had based his version of letters #3 and #12 on Joseph Stuckey's transcription of the manuscripts but "freely revised them" in his 1987 work. Thanks go to John D. Roth for recognizing the Bishop Stuckey version as more reflective of the "style and content" of the originals housed in Jeanguisboden and copies in Goshen, Indiana.
John Stuckey
Rockville, Maryland
February 2024