This refers to a mailing of 12/21/2008 from Sheri Mahnke to which Tom Hamm made comments on 12/22/2008. I believe that I had correspondence with Sheri Mahnke many years ago concerning the family of George W. Smith, but it is difficult for me to find a copy of this correspondence. The records which I have indicate that George W. Smith was a son of James and Atlantic ( ) Smith, and that he was born the 4th of 11th month 1810 in Hillsborough, Ohio. I believe that it is difficult to find data concerning James and Atlantic Smith. The records of Fairfax Monthly Meeting, Indiana indicate that on 9 mo. 20, 1832 George W. Smith condemned his marriage out of unity. This was evidently his marriage to Mary A. Bonsal b. 5--12-1809, d. 1-25-1860. This would indicate that Mary A. Bonsal was either not a member of Friends at this time, or that the couple were both members of Friends but had been married by a clergyman or justice of the peace, not desiring to go through the Friends marriage procedure. At that time, Fairfield Monthly Meeting consisted of several worship groups or Preparative Meetings. Many of the early members of Bear Creek Friends Meeting in Iowa came from the Easton Preparative Meeting in West Newton, Marion County, Indiana. There is a record that George Smith was granted a certificate from Fairfield MM, Indiana to Pleasant Plain MM, Iowa on 9 mo. 18, 1847. This does not mean that he moved to the immediate community of Pleasant Plain, IA. Pleasant Plain MM received certificates for many Friends settling in south central Iowa at that time, since Monthly Meetings had yet been organized in the south central region. I do not have ready access to the Hinshaw and Heiss abstracts of Friends Monthly Meetings, and I do not know whether there are records of other members of the Bonsall family settling as Friends in the Midwest. I do know, from my work in abstracting the earlier records of the Wilmington Monthly Meeting in northern Delaware, that therer was a numerous family of Bonsalls who seem to have been centered in Darby, Pennsylvania, in present day Delaware County, PA, outside of Philadelphia. A number of therm drifted down to nearby Wilmington, Delaware to engage in the trade of that town. There probably are genealogies of this family. Some were related to the prominent Lea family. The records of Darby Monthly Meeting have been preserved, and I believe I have seen abstracts of these records, but I do not know if they have been widely published. Mary Ann "Polly" Mendenhall was a daughter or Richard Mendenhall and his wife, Elizabeth "Betsy" Barnett. Previous to her marriage to George W. Smith on 2 mo. 25, 1863 she had been married to Edward Walton, Jr., who died in 1857 in Iowa. Besides a son, Joseph, who died in infancy, they had two daughters, Elizabeth Ann who married Elkanah Cook and Deborah, who married Calvin Mendenhall. - Herbert Standing, Earlham, Iowa. **************One site keeps you connected to all your email: AOL Mail, Gmail, and Yahoo Mail. Try it now. (http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp&icid=aolcom40vanity&ncid=emlcntaolcom00000025)