Old Colony Mennonites (German: Altkolonier-Mennoniten) are a part of the Russian Mennonite movement that descends from colonists who migrated from the Chortitza Colony in modern Ukraine near Zaporizhia (itself originally of Prussian origins) to settlements in Canada.
[1] Since Chortitza was the first Mennonite settlement in Russia (now modern Ukraine), it was known as the "Old Colony".
Part of the settlement moved to Canada in the 1870s, and the Canadian community, whose church was officially known as the "Reinländer Mennoniten-Gemeinde", was still informally known by the old name.
[5] In 1990, Old Colony Mennonite communities could be found in Mexico, Bolivia, Belize, Paraguay, Argentina, Canada, and the United States of America.
[8] Smaller groups of Old Colony Mennonites also lived in Paraguay, Argentina, Canada, and the US.