To those who have asked for this: Quaker Genealogy at Friends University, Wichita, KS Quakerism grew up in England at a time of great political, economic and religious turmoil. Family records were recorded in the Parish churches of the Church of England and everyone was considered a member and governed and taxed accordingly. As the Quakers were dissenters they were an outlaw group, their marriages illegal and their children bastards. So it was early in the movement that they realized that they must have accurate records of their own. That pattern of records adopted in the 17th century has, in the main, been extended to the present. Quaker records in England and America are considered prime genealogical sources. Two sets of records are of particular genealogical value - Birth, Death, and Marriage Records - and Minutes of the Monthly Meeting for Business. These today are stored in Yearly Meeting Archives. As an introduction to American Quakers and their genealogical records Errol Elliott’s “Quakers on the American Frontier.” (Cat. FQ BX 7635 E 44 1969) gives an excellent account of their migration to America and their trek westward. The prime source of American Quaker ancestry is William Wade Hinshaw’s “Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy.” Hinshaw was an IA Quaker who conceived the idea for the encyclopedia and in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s arranged with Quaker colleges to have students employed to research monthly meeting records of the area. They were given very explicit directions as to material to be recorded and the manner of preparing the notebooks to be turned in to Hinshaw. He paid them 25 cents an hour. These notebooks were edited and he was able to publish six volumes before his death. After his death, his widow sent the notebooks to Swarthmore College where they were microfilmed. She paid to have the records placed on cards and alphabetically filed by monthly and yearly meetings in the format of the encyclopedia listing. This file is known as The Quaker Index. Six Volumes. Willard Heiss, a Quaker genealogist with the IN Historical Society, took the microfilm of the IN notebooks and after extensive research, organization and editing, published Volume VII on IN, which includes 3 IL meetings. Later Roger Boone, of OH put out a volume of Additions and Corrections to the volume on IN. Heiss also worked with microfilm of the unpublished notebooks and produced typed copies in the same format as the encyclopedia, called typescripts. The Wichita Friends Library, was able to buy them. They are now indexed. The archive of KS Yearly Meeting - now named Mid America Yearly Meeting, 1872 to the present, are housed adjacent to the Quaker Collection in the Friends University Library. An alphabetical card file has been prepared on all members in the Birth, Death and Marriage Records in the archives. The archives of KS Yearly Meeting Conservative, 1879-1929, are in the Quaker Collection in the Friends University Library, Wichita, KS. For details of these two archives see Index Cabinet #2. BRITISH ISLES Genealogical sources in the British isles include Quaker records as follows: Bradford MM. Story of 270 years, Registers and personal records from 1652. Cat. FQ BX 7677 H 6 (1952) Gainsborough MM. Minute Book (reprint) 1669-1710, edited by Harold W. Brace. Cat. FQ Ref. BX 7613 L 69 R 5, 3 Vol. Somerset Quarterly Mtg, 1668-1699. Minutes including index of Friends. Edited by Stephen C. Moreland. Cat. FQ BX 7677 S 65 Surrey and Sussex Some records from original minute books, Edited by Thomas W. Marsh, indexed. Cat. FQ Bx 7677 W5 P 4 Wilshire Birth, Death, and Marriage Records 1657-1837 Charles II, King of England in 1681, granted a charter to William Penn, to a large province in the New World. Penn came in 1682. He admitted that the Indians were the only true owners of the land, brought them together (Indians from various parts of his province,) to form a treaty of peace and friendship. For 70 years, unlike most Indian treaties, this was never broken. Not a drop of Quaker blood was ever shed by an Indian. 800-794-6945 ext. 5697 office 316-295-5697 work www.friends.edu/library/SpecialCollections/default.asp home fax 316-295-5050 (AIM) home 2100 W University St Wichita KS 67213