Based on what Dan said, pehaps "efms" simply means exempt from military service. Jim In a message dated 1/7/2005 7:01:27 PM Eastern Standard Time, QUAKER-ROOTS-D-request@rootsweb.com writes: 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service, then got himself disowned, and the meeting sent a second letter to the local militia stating his exemption was no longer valid!