There were many areas in NC counties named Beaver Dam or Beaver Creek, so you might have to pinpoint the location more than that. Research the land grants and deeds. Find out exactly which rivers and streams were nearby, and what neighbors they had and what rivers and creeks those deeds mention, and then try to determine the exact neighborhood. In working with Quaker ancestors, one detail that is often overlooked is the fact that the Hinshaw abstracts contain the records out of the Monthly Meetings only, which is where business and vital records were kept. The member's local (weekly) meeting, or Preparatory Meeting, may have been quite some distance away from the supervising MM, so people did not necessarily live in the vicinity of the MM. Hence, at times some families' records could vary from one MM to another, because they may have switched attending one local preparatory meeting with another PM that was also relatively nearby, but which was under another MM. And sometimes the PM's would change their affiliations, thereby causing the business and vital records to shift back and forth from one MM to another without the family changing their weekly practice. It's similar to people changing county jurisdictions without moving one inch. Also, it is good to keep in mind that Hinshaw's workers did not abstract all minutes of all meetings. And a lot of things that might interest the descendants were left out of the abstracts. Order the microfilm into your local Family History Center library for viewing. Katherine Benbow ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com

I have an interesting web site?http://www.rootsweb.com/~quakers/westfield.htm?that may clear up one one the mysteries of Surry Quaker meeting houses. The author, Luther Byrd, was my Westfield High School principle and a historian. Westfield HS is no longer?in existence. Sandy Cook, one of the donors of the land for Westfield?Friends Church is my?g grandfather.?He lived adjacent to the Church. As a youngster I can remember multi-denominational funerals?and burial services?at the Church and graveyard. The graveyard is one of the oldest in what is now Surry County. Some of the headstones were crude rough hewn rocks.? The?Quaker Churches were called meeting places, as were most churches?prior to the Revolution. To be an official church there had to be two formal services conducted by an English Angelican Minister annually, thus meeting places.? Microfilm copies of Hinshaw's indices can be found at any LDS research center. I went through?all of Hinshaw's?info on NC, SC and some Tn meeting houses looking for my?Cook and Cain relatives.?There were numerous?Quaker Cooks, however the Quaker naming patterns?did not match my Scotch-Irish descendents. Sandy Cook?(5th American generation) was the first of my descendents to became a Quaker.? I don't recall a Beaver Creek?or Dam, however Tom's Creek is about 1?mile from the Church.?The Church is located about?10 miles south of the NC-VA line. Dale Cook?? -----Original Message----- From: BenbowKD@aol.com To: ncsurry@rootsweb.com Sent: Tue, 6 Nov 2007 4:55 am Subject: Re: [NCSURRY] Quaker records There were many areas in NC counties named Beaver Dam or Beaver Creek, so you might have to pinpoint the location more than that. Research the land grants and deeds. Find out exactly which rivers and streams were nearby, and what neighbors they had and what rivers and creeks those deeds mention, and then try to determine the exact neighborhood. In working with Quaker ancestors, one detail that is often overlooked is the fact that the Hinshaw abstracts contain the records out of the Monthly Meetings only, which is where business and vital records were kept. The member's local (weekly) meeting, or Preparatory Meeting, may have been quite some distance away from the supervising MM, so people did not necessarily live in the vicinity of the MM. Hence, at times some families' records could vary from one MM to another, because they may have switched attending one local preparatory meeting with another PM that was also relatively nearby, but which was under another MM. And sometimes the PM's would change their affiliations, thereby causing the business and vital records to shift back and forth from one MM to another without the family changing their weekly practice. It's similar to people changing county jurisdictions without moving one inch. Also, it is good to keep in mind that Hinshaw's workers did not abstract all minutes of all meetings. And a lot of things that might interest the descendants were left out of the abstracts. Order the microfilm into your local Family History Center library for viewing. Katherine Benbow ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NCSURRY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ________________________________________________________________________ Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail! - http://mail.aol.com