My Brethren ancestors were not from Kentucky, they landed in Kansas, Indiana, Ill, Mich, etc. I knew from early on that my mother's mother who died when she was 13, was Brethren. I didn't fully understand as a child what that meant. When I started doing genealogy in the early 80's I was shocked to find out how many Brethren ancestors I had on both my mother's and father's side. I wonder how many others today are in the same condition of being totally unknowing about their roots. I have learned to keep my thought to myself when I meet an obviously Brethren (to me) name, because if I ask they just do a sort of double take and said "Huh?" When you consider the normal migrations of families and then what was really a great diaspora of families in WWII there are thousands of descendants of Brethren who have no notion of their ancestors religion or way of life. I find this Brethren list a wonderful was to catch up on my history. Merle, you in particular, have really opened up a lot of history and put it online for us. Thanks, Ruth Hoese ----- Original Message ----- From: "Janet Rogers" <rogers922@intrstar.net> To: <brethren@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 8:45 AM Subject: Re: [BRE] Early brethren in Cape Girardeua & Bollinger Co's. MO > I do find churches >> (Baptist or Methodist, usually) with the family names of known Brethren >> who were there -back before 1800. >> >> I wish I was able to trace these families in each known church area. >> >> Merle C Rummel > > > I do wonder if they are aware of their beginnings. Hopefully some of the > families will be into genealogy and begin the process back. Maybe we could > help them a bit by placing a notice on the boards for the family names and > the area, and then suggest they look to Brethren roots for further > research. It may, in the end, save a whole lot of time and frustration to > some, especially if they are following a line along with a religion. > Lutheran, Methodist or Baptist today doesn't mean ancestors 200 years ago > were the same. As this list has pointed out on many occasions, you attend > whatever chuch you can find when yours is not available. > > Many Blessings, > Janet Rogers > >