Hi Dave, From: "Dave Tennis" <bondoutdt@yahoo.com> Sent: Friday, February 21, 2003 8:50 PM > Hi everyone, > > As I stated earlier I am new to the genealogy thing, and am asking for suggestions. One of the original 13, Abraham Tunes had a son named William who married Magdalena Levering. I have read the Levering family genealogy book and found 4 sons, Anthony, John, Abraham, and Samuel. I have tracked several generations of Samuel's line but cannot find anything about the other 3 sons. Does anyone have any suggestions of where to look? I am not afraid to ask questions or for help as it sounds like most of you have been doing this for quite some time and would like to learn the proper way of checking records. > > I also am not sure that Abraham Tunes only had William, he may have had more than one son but I don't know for sure. From your earlier message, I have the feeling you have a tentative line of descent from Abraham Tunes. It would help, I think, if you could post the first several generations that you are trying to verify. In general, it is best to work back from the known present toward the past. Otherwise, if you start at the distant past and try to go forward, you don't know which line to follow, so face an ever expanding number of families to search at each generation. However, if you have a tentative line from some secondary source, it may be reasonable to try to check it out and verify it. The birth dates of the children of Abraham Tunes are shown in the Records of the Abington Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends. (I just happen to have a copy of that page.) It shows another son, "Tunes". Since Tunes (or Teunis) is the short form of Antheunis, he may also have been known as Anthony. There may be other information on the family in these records, including the marriage of the children. You can get a microfilm of them from your local Family History Center operated by the Latter Day Saints. See: http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp The film for the early Abington records is #0383428 According to the website you mentioned earlier, it appears William moved to Towamencin Township. This is near to Gwynedd, so maybe his family is in the Gwynedd Monthly Meeting. That is film #0383439 The records there begin in 1714. Both films have indexes, as I recall. Another resource you may find useful is: Genealogical Records: Pennsylvania Wills, 1682-1834 This is available as CDROM published by Family Tree Maker as #209. This has very brief, terse abstracts of the wills. If you find a will that appears relevant from the abstract, you will also see the county, the will book (this may be a letter) , the page number, and the date proved. With that information, you can get a copy of the complete will on microfilm from the LDS. You will want to search for last names of Tunes, Tunis, Tennis, and Teunis -- at least. The basic article detailing the European origin of the 13 families is: "The Ancestry of the Thirteen Krefeld Emigrants of 1683" by Wilhelm Niepoth, translated by John Brockie Lukens in Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine vol XXXI no 3 (1980) pp 191-207. And reprinted in Genealogies of Pennsylvania Families vol III pp 495-512. In addition to "How to" info on the LDS site, see: http://www.cyndislist.com/ You happen to live near one of the largest and best genealogical libraries in the country: The Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne. If your ancestors were still Quakers when they moved to Indiana and Iowa, you should ask questions about them on the QUAKER-ROOTS list. There are several people there that are very knowledgeable about researching Quakers in those states. This is probably a lot to dump on you at one time, but I wanted to get it down while it was on my mind. Regards, Howard hswain@ix.netcom.com