Hi Lyndall, have you tried locating families with the same surnames in PA and other states? (I know we always 'think PA', but a lot of people lived in Maryland in particular -- and the boundaries were not settled till the 1770s. There were sizable Quaker populations in NJ and NY as well). During the Revolution PA required that men of military age (teenagers till in their 50s I believe) register, so the PA militia lists are almost censuses. VA and other colonies did too, but most of the PA lists survive, unlike VA. They are largely published. The published PA archives are largely free on the Internet. See our webpages for detailed information on what is in them and how to get to them (http://homepages.rootsweb.com ). The US Colonial "Census" CD is also useful for this. It collects a number of colonial census substitutes. It's a bird's eye view. Having ID's pockets of your surnames, look for wills and probates that ID family members. www.usgenweb will take you to many on line. Especially PA counties. The Cumberland ones are abstracted. Couldn't be easier. Even if your ancestors were PA Quakers they theoretically should have been on some militia list, even if they never got called up. The PA Archives website has additional indexes to what is in the published archives. Beyond that of course you have the US Service Records, on line at Ancestry. If you don't find them, check Loyalists. There's shelful of books to check. They are fried into a CD that you can use on line at www.genealogy.com if you are a member. Read the LDS guide to US indexes for more suggestions. I'd use IGI too to spot pockets. If your ancestor was a child during the Revolution you are looking for his father, whose name you don't know. You might guess it by identifying his oldest male child's name, or just scrape up all the households with your surname and use the wills to eliminate them. If your ancestor paid his passage and his wife's, he was well off (Dang Quakers were usually rich by other people's standards!). He came to the new world to join other friends, relatives, or business associates. So be VERY aware of the names of the people around him, who showed up at his wedding, whom he bought and sold and sued in the courts. You will want to find those same surnames in Ireland. I've posted directions a couple times to the list on how to do Irish Quaker research from the USA -- so check there. The stuff's at Swarthmores. The handwriting is atrocious so if you do go, bring a tall bottle of aspirin. The record situation differs which each colony, but you can also use French and Indian War military records to eyeball potential dads. This kinda works in VA. I think PA is more of a mess. My impression is Maryland has a good records situation. After researching a couple Virginia/PA families in Maryland, I'd not ever neglect Maryland, esp if there's Quakers involved. They hadn't yet built those 200 foot walls among the states so people crossed the state line with impunity. Almost as if they were Indians!! I have found people who lived in PA getting married in Maryland too. Linda Merle ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: "Lyndall Maxwell" <Lyndall_Maxwell@msn.com> Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 19:55:20 -0600 >My William Maxwell (Scot-Irish) married Abigail Milhous (Irish Quaker). >Her parents sailed directly from Dublin to South Carolina and settled in the Camden area about 1751. >The unknown parents of William Maxwell (died 1794 Camden area) and his brother, John, came to South Carolina about 1751. >We don't know if they came directly to South Carolina or settled in PA first. >Do you have any connections? > >Lyndall Maxwell >lyndall_maxwell@msn.com<mailto:lyndall_maxwell@msn.com> > > ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the WebMail system at mail.fea.net