On Thu, 6 Jan 2005 19:27:21 -0700 "Carole Cook" <carolescoaching@mstar2.net> wrote: > In Hinshaw's Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, the >following > abbreviation is used: efms. > > However, in the list of abbreviations given in the front of the > encyclopedia, the meaning of "efms" is not given. Can you tell me >what > it means? Carole, It would be easier to know for sure if you gave us the whole entry, but I have one guess, a shot in the dark, that the ms in your abbreviation stands for "military service". I wonder if this is not a case of a meeting granting its young men letters explaining the Quaker opposition to all wars. A web search on the words efms and Hinshaw turns up: <http://www.stanley-mead.com/genealogy/stanley/quaker.htm> <http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/GAY/1999-12/0945133440> The second site tells of a young man in Virginia in the 1760s who was granted a letter by his meeting to exempt him from military service, then got himself disowned, and the meeting sent a second letter to the local militia stating his exemption was no longer valid! -- Dan Treadway P. O. Box 72 Gilbert IA 50105 treadway@netins.net http://showcase.netins.net/web/treadway/