How to Research Quaker Ancestors
Quakers are a religious society built on the foundation of peace, simple living, justice and tolerance. The Quaker religion was founded in England in 1652 by George Fox. The term Quaker was given to the group because some members trembled during religious experiences. Quakers maintained good records of their members from their beginning. Understanding the historical context and language of the records will help you in your search for your Quaker ancestors.
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Instructions
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Print ancestral or family tree charts. Talk to family members about your Quaker relatives. Record the information on the sheet beginning with yourself and working backward. Fill in as much birth, marriage and death information as is known.
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Print several family group sheets. Write the names of each set of parents recorded on your family tree chart on a family group sheet. Include the names of all children born to each family and all the vital information.
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Search for Quaker vital records. Birth records were maintained usually when a family joined a group and recorded the information then. Therefore, records may be incomplete. Marriages can be found in the bride's meeting records. Meetings are another word for worship. Bride's meeting records are similar to meeting minutes, which recorded the events that occurred during the meeting or worship. All marriages had to be approved. Deaths were mostly recorded, but if the deceased had no heirs, a death was usually not recorded. The records are held in the locale where the Quakers lived and worshipped.
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Search for men's and women's meeting minutes. Men and women held meetings separately until the 1890s and therefore kept separate records. The minutes may include marriages, disownments, removals, creation and dissolution of meetings and other business.
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Search Quaker mailing lists online for information. Post a query regarding your Quaker ancestor or respond to queries posted.
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Tips & Warnings
There is no central repository for Quaker vital records. You must know the area in which meetings are or were held. Contact the Quaker group in the area in which your ancestors lived to inquire about past record archives.
Consult the collections of the Friends Historical Library and Quaker Collection online to locate record archives.
References
Resources
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