Andre Sommer was born ca. 1700 at Lützelflüh or Sumiswald, Canton Bern, Switzerland. He was an Anabaptist and farmer at Lambermoulin, later known of Bambois, in the Pincipality of Salm, France, as early as 1750. He was the father of five children born ca. 1725-ca. 1740. A number of his descendants immigrated to the United States in the 1800s. Descendants, especially descendants of his son, Joseph Sommer (ca. 1736-1781), lived in France, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and elsewhere.

André Herford/Herrfort was born in 1812 in Ste. Marie-aux-Mines, Alsace, France. He married Anna Somer and they had three children by 1839. Shortly thereafter, André died and Anna and her three children traveled to Canada. One son died on the ship over. Anna and her sons, Andrew and John, settled in the Wilmot or East Zorra Amish-Mennonite communities in southwestern Ontario. Both sons married and had large families. In 1892, part of John's family migrated to Elkton, Michigan while the majority of the Herrforts remained in Ontario. Descendants live in Canada and the United States.

"Between 1862 and 1878 a group of Amish ministers and lay people gathered annually to discuss differences in religious practices that had emerged within their scattered congregations. Known as the Dienerversammlungen - or ministers' meetings - these annual conferences proved to be a pivotal moment in the history of the Amish and Mennonite churches. The goal of the Dienerversammlungen had been to maintain unity within the fellowship amidst the many vexing issues that threatened to divide the group. By the end of the 1860s, however, the lines dividing the more progressive group (eventually to become known as the 'Amish Mennonites') from the more conservative group (the 'Old Order Amish') had become painfully clear."--Back cover.