Hi Sue, If you look in the book Violet mentioned,=20 Vital Records of Nantucker, Massachussetts to the Year 1850, you will see that many of the births and marriages have listed as a source "C.R. 4" The list of abbreviations at the front shows that this means Church Records of the Society of Friends. It seems to me that if a birth date has this record as a source,=20 that one could conclude (or at least assume) that the parents were Quakers. Ditto for marriage record for the people involved. These books are available many places: online for a fee, online free, online thru your local library, on CD, as books for sale or at your library; LDS microfilm. Once you get access to them -- whichever way you prefer -- you should be able to start with your known Ebenzer Swain=20 and Lydia Ellis and trace quite far back all lines (at least as long as they stay on Nantucket). In doing that you can note which ones have the Quaker connection as noted above. I don't know about your Swain line, but mine has several that were Quakers as well as the Husseys and Arthurs and probably others. You may be interested to know that the origin of Richard Swain has recently been found. It is shown by Clifford L. Stott in "The English Origin of Richard^1 Swaine of Hampton, New Hampshire, and Nantucket" in The American Genealogist, vol 74, no. 4 (Oct 1999), pp. 241 - 249. (He traces back 3 more generations and corrects many errors of earlier writers.) Even more recently, one missing will has now been found (of Richard's father). It is in an article by Leslie Mahler, "Various English Wills Relating to New England Colonists: Gillett, Swaine, Cheney, and Tutty -Knight-Whitman" in NEHGR vol 162, no. 2, (Apr 2008), pp. 113-117, at p. 115. I took a very quick look and could be wrong, but I think your Ellis line comes from Lt. John Ellis and Elizabeth Freeman. There is an = excellent article on them and their descendants by Lydia B. (Phinney) Browning and Maclean W. McLean: "Lt. John^1 and Elizabeth (Freeman) Ellis of Sandwich, Mass. in starting in NEHGR vol 119, no 3 (July 1965), on p. 161. This article is continued in several more issues. Regards, Howard [email protected] From: "Sue Maxwell" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 11:49 AM Subject: [Q-R] The Swains in Nantucket > In trying to learn more about the Swains involvement with Quakerism in > Nantucket, I was only able to read quickly, while at the workshop last week. > One book, on a microfilm, gave me the idea that they were not highly > involved. Since the book, Swains of Nantucket, Tales and Trails, now has , > for me, a huge history of my line and cousins, and I don't yet know how > everyone is related, I noticed some that were involved, in this book I > browsed, and some that were not. I also found a two volume book that > includes Shubael Swain's grandparents, Ebenezer Swain and Lydia Gyles, but > not his parents, Ebenzer Swain and Lydia Ellis. Does anyone have any > research on the Swain involvement with the Society. It is going to take me > time to figure all of this out as well as catch up on all of your > conversations since I left. I have them in an email folder, and I am now > learning about Nantucket and want to know more about the Society of Friends. > I don't think my grandfather was a member, as his daughter, in NYC, married > Isaac Leggett, twin brother of Abraham Leggett, in a Methodist Church. > Abraham but not Isaac is listed in Henshaws Encyclopedia. > > > Why did Henshaw not include Mass in his enormous collection- that was very > disappointing- Sue Maxwell