Audrey Bennett wrote: > You missed one from Richard Brandstetter that he promises to resend I have sent this out befor to other lists I working on the Babcocks ,Davis , Maxson and others . there is so much on this group it been hard to keep it in order :-) Richard Brandstetter Since the May of 97 discovery of the Shrewsbury Seventh Day Baptist Church and family connection right here in our own back yard, (Monmouth Co. NJ). I've had unbelievable luck and help in putting together a family history, which has been well documented. August 1997 and Oct 98 we took the information from church records from 1789, of their travel West and proceeded on our own journey. We started exactly where the church was, -mile marker 98.8 on the Garden State Parkway. We traveled the route along the old Forbes highway through Pennsylvania, stopping in Bedford Pennsylvania. There we found tantalizing tidbits of their passing. We found Babcock Ridge and Babcock Lost Brook just outside of Bedford. When asked the local's response was, "they've always been known by those names." Thomas Babcock was an important part of the church in 1789 which raises the question, is there a connection with the church and their travel through the region and the above names? We then traveled to the Salemville and Woodbridgetown in Pennsylvania, which was founded by this New Jersey church group. Our travels took us to Salem, West Virginia where the families finally settled in 1792. They founded Salem and the Salem-Teikyo University in Salem, West Virginia. Here we also found a gravestone that was taken from Monmouth County, NJ to Wisconsin and back to West Virginia. About 1905 most of the gravestones were moved from Shrewsbury Seventh Day Baptist Church and used as a foundation for a barn. This one stone was at the site but not associated with a grave. In order to protect it a minister removed it and hence made its way through a series of churches to finally rest in West Virginia. In September 97 and Aug 98, we reversed the trip to Newport Rhode Island, where the church and families originally came from. These people were responsible for major development in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Monmouth County, NJ. The Newport church, the first Seventh Day Baptist church in the US was founded in 1640. Its building is now intact and is the Newport Historical Society building. The church at the Mystic Seaport is a Seventh Day Baptist church. Unfortunately the Monmouth County Church which was moved in 1830 only survived until the 1970's when a fire destroyed it. This 300-year travel for my wife only came to light this May 97 . She is originally from Colorado and knew nothing of her Monmouth County connection. Since my research and our travels have begun, I have acquired a wealth of information on this particular Baptist group. I now have copies of the original church's historical records for the last 350 years and its people and their accomplishments as well as wills deeds and church minutes. Information pertaining to how there families were part of the group that was directly responsible for the development of Monmouth County and signatories on the original Monmouth Patent. Also acquired is a database of over 6,000 family members that is mind boggling. It's amazing that here in Monmouth County there is little knowledge of this group that was part of the formation of Monmouth County. There is so much knowledge, of their daily lives, how as a group they were so united that they sold their church, their properties and proceeded to build towns and cities across the country, it is amazing that up until this investigation so little was known here in Monmouth County, I have placed copies of the original church records from 1740 to 1830, several books and many copies of various documents at the Monmouth County Archives, the Monmouth County Historical Society, and the historical societies in Wall, Howell and Shrewsbury. Much help and even books were from Mr. Don A. Sanford and the Seventh Day Baptist Historical Society