there are many - depending on what you want - Donald Durnbaugh wrote two major books - European Origins of the Brethren (1958), and The Brethren in Colonial America (1967) ...these are strong on translating documents, with the included history Floyd Mallott wrote a general book: Studies in Brethren History (1954) On line - www.cob-net.org - across the top hit "History", there are all kinds of information, Ron Gordon has gathered a good collection. I will take some exception to the following statement: The Pietists came after the Anabaptist movement, but were certainly influenced by them. The Pietist movement was a Bible-Study movement in Germany starting at the University of Halle in about 1680, which emphasized a personal revival/a renewed relation with Jesus - it centered on the New Testament accounts of the Early Church (First Century Christianity - or "Primitive Christianity") Anabaptism was 200 years before, being a radical movement at the time of Luther's Reformation. Alexander Mack included the Anabaptist concepts in his Bible Study group - in his mill. He read some Anabaptist writings, and realized that they were true of Primitive Christianity (which had also been a concept of the Anabaptist movement of about 1500). It seems he was about the only one, other Pietists seem to have done little with Anabaptism, and even for us Brethren, the Anabaptist emphasis really came during and following the American Revolution, among the Eastern Brethren, as we made "community" with the Mennonites in Pennsylvania, some 50 years after we came to the New World. Merle C Rummel > Thanks, Judy. I don't think I made myself clear in my post. My family is > intertwined with many in the Somerset region of Pennsylvania, with many Meyers, > Lichtys and Beeghleys in the line. When I read posts it's like one large > family in the late 1700s. They moved on to Illinois, then Kansas, but also Iowa > and California. Obviously information in these areas are of great interest to > me. And I do have specific questions I will be posting in the future. > > My main interest in this post, though, is a more general interest. I am > confused about the beginnings of Brethren - they are co-mingled with Anabaptists, > Mennonites and Amish in many catalogs and books.