I am a descendant of Hannah Allen b. 1741 and Nicholas Barker b. 1737. Trying to find date and location of their marriage. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you, Dorothy L. Grimsley

I started by Googling the two names together. That led to a FindAGrave entry by "Lanie." She posted that they were married on 9 June 1760 in Randolph Co., North Carolina; the location of their graves is unknown. Perhaps you could leave a message for her and she might be able to tell you where she got that information. Then I tried Ancestry, searching for Nicholas Barker, b. 1737. The North Carolina records are well represented in Hinshaw's Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy. In Volume 1, pp. 370 and 373, Hannah Barker (formerly Allen) is shown as reported at Cane Creek Monthly Meeting on 4 August 1764 to have married out of unity (to a non-Quaker). Cane Creek served a large area once designated as Orange County, but other counties (including Randolph) were formed from it. Google also found several family trees posted onilne that reported either the 1760 date noted above or gave a marriage date of 4 August 1762 [possibly a mistake for 4 August 1764?]. None of them I looked at had documention of sources other than other family group sheets. On Fri, Jan 25, 2013 at 6:43 PM, Dorothy Grimsley < dorothygrimsley@bellsouth.net> wrote: > I am a descendant of Hannah Allen b. 1741 and Nicholas Barker b. 1737. > Trying to find date and location of their marriage. > Any help would be appreciated. > Thank you, > Dorothy L. Grimsley > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > QUAKER-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > -- Rick Davis

On Fri, 25 Jan 2013 17:43:35 -0600 "Dorothy Grimsley" <dorothygrimsley@bellsouth.net> wrote: > I am a descendant of Hannah Allen b. 1741 and Nicholas Barker b. >1737. Trying to find date and location of their marriage. > Any help would be appreciated. > Thank you, > Dorothy L. Grimsley Dorothy, A family listing for this couple appears on page 346 of volume 1 of Hinshaw's /Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy/ in the Section for Cane Creek Meeting, North Carolina: Nicholas Barker, son of Daniel & Elizabeth b 3-8-1737; Hannah Barker, dt John & Phebe Allen b 7-10-1741, Chester Co., Pa. The first child listed is Emey, b 1-19-1764 in Gulford County NC. Supposing the bride must have been 18, that puts the marriage in a range from about 1759 to 1763. I'm guessing 1761 or 1762 are the most likely. On page 373 of the same volume I see that Nicholas Barker is taken into membership on 1760,9,6. On 1764,8,4, Hannah Barker, (formerly Allen) is reported to have mou (married out of unity). This date is not the date of the wedding; it is when the wedding came to the attention of the meeting. Now I'm thinking 1863 is a more likely year for the wedding. This couple clearly valued their Quaker membership, or we would not have seen their children listed. Why get married outside meeting, then? To get married in meeting requires a request to the meeting at one monthly business meeting. At that meeting a committee would be appointed to investigate "clearness", and report back to the next month's business meeting. So at a minimum, the time from deciding to marry to being able to do it in meeting is more than four weeks. I don't know colonial North Carolina law and custom at all well, but I'm guessing a marriage before a minister or justice could be arranged in a matter of days. If there's a baby on the way.... What this means is that the marriage was not a Quaker marriage, and you will need to look elsewhere for a record of it. Cane Creek meeting Meeting is now in Alamace County, which was created in 1849 from Orange County. Orange County was formed in 1752. Even though all the children's births, beginning in 1764 are recorded as having been in Guilford County, that county was not formed until 1770, from parts of Rowan and Orange counties. So, if the the marriage is recorded in civil records, it seems Orange County is the most likely. The book I have says the Orange County court house burned in 1789, but that marriage records begin in 1754. Now, with this search on WorldConnect http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=Search&includedb=&lang=en&ti=&surname=barker&stype=Exact&given=nicholas&bplace=&byear=&brange=0&dplace=&dyear=&drange=0&mplace=&myear=1763&mrange=1&father=&mother=&spouse=hannah+allen&skipdb=&period=All&submit.x=Search I find reports the marriage took place on 4 Aug 1762 at Holly Springs. in Wake County. Wake county was formed in 1770 from Cumberland, Johnston, and Orange Counties. Another one http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=cpugh1&id=I379 gives the same date, with the location being Orange County. this one cites a source! /The Allen Family-Descendants of John and Amy Cox Allen/ by Lester M Allen, Allen (pub 1987). It even says there's a copy in the Randolph Public Library in Asheboro, NC. As I examine more online trees, I am beginning to fear nobody knows this one. As I explained, the 4 Aug date recorded by Cane Creek is not the date of the wedding. I suspect the 4 Aug 1762 date is simply the same date moved back two years so as to be more than nine months before the birth of the first child. Heres one http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=clark-downey&id=I5007 that the marriage was 25 Apr 1763 in Randolf [sic] County NC. No source cited, but at least different from the rest. http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=punkinpetters&id=I487 has 19 Jan 1763 in Randolph County. Randolph County was formed in 1779 from Guilford County, so the record won't be in that courthouse. It still seems that if any civil record exists, it will be in Orange County. The courthouse is in Hillsboro. I can't blame you for asking for help. Much good luck. -- Dan Treadway P. O. Box 72 Gilbert IA 50105 treadway@netins.net http://showcase.netins.net/web/treadway/

I suspect 19 Jan 1763 is fictional, too. It is exactly one year before the birth of the first child. -- Dan Treadway P. O. Box 72 Gilbert IA 50105 treadway@netins.net http://showcase.netins.net/web/treadway/