Nel: This is a topic for discussion now and then on the Quaker message boards. Here is one answer I found from a knowledgeable source: "There was no official minimum age for signing as a witness. I've found a couple of cases where I think children as young as nine or ten signed in Pennsylvania or North Carolina." In another place someone wrote that they attended a wedding where a 6-year-old signed the certificate and the mother of a 5-year-old signed for her. Further--this person's 18-month-old granddaughter signed herself with her mother writing out her name in parenthesis after. Burnis **************Get trade secrets for amazing burgers. Watch "Cooking with Tyler Florence" on AOL Food. (http://food.aol.com/tyler-florence?video=4?&NCID=aolfod00030000000002)

HATCHER website: http://hatcherfamilyassn.com HALL DNA project: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~nhatcher/hall/HDNAtest.htm "If you can't stand the skeletons, stay out of the closet" - Val D Greenwood Ah-right, then! I did a little more searching, too. And it does seem as if there wasn't really an age requirement. So.....on our file we have.... "Ann HATCHER was listed as a witness TO HER DAUGHTER Mary's wedding to James GIBSON on 11 January 1768, at Goose Creek Meeting House, Loudoun county, VA." "Ann HATCHER was listed as a witness TO HER SON Thomas's wedding to Rebekah NICHOLS on 14 April 1773, at Goose Creek Meeting House, Loudoun county, VA" I'm quite positive the relatives did not identify their relationship so I'm saying.....how is it known that Ann Hatcher was THE MOTHER? Here is the problem....... In LoudounCo, VA Deed Bk N, 1779-1784, p 145-147: (transcribed copy on file) Indenture. Dated 10 January 1771 between William Hatcher and Mary his wife, wheelwright of Cameron Parish to Philip Noland, "being all that lott or half acre of land lying and being in the Town of Leesburg and numbered forty five...which...was conveyed to said William Hatcher by Richard Coombs and Mary his wife....by their deed bearing date the thirteenth day of March (1769) and was by said Richard Coombs purchased from John Minor and Elizabeth his wife...February 15, 1763. Note the date of 1771 and the fact he's a wheelwright. Now the only marriage we have in the QUAKER recs is Wm to Mary McGrew in 1779. So how could Wm and Mary, HIS WIFE, sell land in 1771 if they didn't marry til 1779. Perhaps this is the answer...... Ann who witnessed Mary Hatcher Gibson's wedding in Jan 1768 really was mama Ann VS. But she died shortly after and Wm, the wheelwright, married a Mary LNU before Jan 1771 and, considering his problems with the Friends, I can see him not bothering to marry in the MH thus avoiding the records. This Mary died before 1781 since no wife was mentioned in Wm's will. Then in 1773, Ann, the dau of John/Sarah Ingledue, witnessed the wedding of her uncle, Thomas. She would have been about 10 and possibly even a few years older. And in 1779 Wm Jr md Mary McGrew. The timeline works............whatcha' think? Nel