Someone else may have already said this and if so I apologize. Much has been said about disownments and removals. I'm transcribing some Rhode Island Friends Records for 17th and 18th centuries, and in those the difference is very clear. Removals were when someone left and asked for a certificate to a meeting somewhere else. A copy was recorded in the old meeting and also in the new when the person was accepted there, so the researcher gets two shots at the information. Denials covered "disownments" for all kinds of offenses. Men's Meeting and Women's Meeting Minutes recorded almost everything else, including when an offense was first noted and Friends were appointed to go and talk with an offending party. The matter reached a denial only when the offender was given notice that he was no longer under the care of Friends because of what he/she had done. Denials and the apologies when an offender repented and returned - I can't think of the term used for that - were recorded in a separate book, as were Removals. I'm sure that as time wore on the boundaries got blurred in some places, but that's what I see in the records I'm working with. Jane