Wisdom Wednesday: UK Quaker Records

History

The Religious Society of Friends, whose members are known as Friends or Quakers, was founded in 1647 by Englishman, George Fox. “Quakers believe that there is something of God in everybody. They do not have clergy or rituals, and their meetings for worship are often held in silence.” (Source: www.bbc.co.uk – see below.) Their views did not come from a strict reading of the Bible, a book they considered a guideline but not binding. They are known today for their dedication to social reform. For a further discussion of the Society of Friends beliefs as understood by the British, go to the BBC website, www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/subdivisions/quakers_1.shtml

Quakers were persecuted for their faith for many years, until the Act of Toleration of 1689 gave some relief. “For example, they were often fined, imprisoned or even transported for refusing to take oaths, serve in the armed forces, attend Anglican church services, or pay tithes to their parish clergyman.” (Source: Herber, p. 255.) The group had a large following despite the troubles, especially in Northwest England. In 1682, William Penn led 23,000 Friends to the new world, founding the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Practices and Beliefs that Affected Record Keeping

Friends used numbers for days and months to avoid using words derived from the names of pagan gods. The "first day" of a week was Sunday, the "second day" was Monday and so on. Prior to the calendar change in 1752, the first day of second month of 1730 was known to the Friends’ Anglican neighbors as 1 April 1730 because the year started on Lady Day, March 25. After 1752, January first began the New Year and the second month became February. This threw off the names of the last four months of the year. Before 1752, September might be abbreviated 7ber, and October as 8ber, etc. Not anymore.

Friends understood the need for good record keeping and have reliable records from 1668 forward. Since there were no baptisms, they kept records of births. Marriages needed the permission of the society which was recorded, and all present at the ceremony often signed the certificate. It wasn’t uncommon to have fifty witnesses, both Quakers and non-member guests. During the years of Hardwicke’s Marriage Act between 1754 and 1837, only Anglican marriages and those of Quakers and Jews were considered valid. Burials were recorded as well. Quakers did not want to be buried in consecrated ground and provided for their own cemeteries.

Accessing the Records

As mentioned in a previous blog post, after civil registration in 1837, there was a call for religious groups to deposit their registers. The National Archives received over 1500 from the Firends and summaries called digests were made. A copy was sent to the local meeting and the Friends House Library in London. The CRO might now have the local copy. The records show 250,000 births, 40,000 marriages and 300,000 burials.

The library is at Friends’ House, 173-177 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ. Besides the digests, they hold the names of representatives to “Yearly Meeting” from 1668 and minutes from meetings. The library catalog is online at www.quaker.org.uk. While some restrictions apply to records not yet fifty years old, the library is open for public use Tuesday-Friday, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

The Public Record Office holds the originals in Record Group 6 and 8 (RG 6 and RG 8). The LDS has the originals and the indexes on microfilm. Online at www.familysearch.org. scroll down on the home page to “Browse by Location” and click “United Kingdom and Ireland.” From the next list pick “England and Wales, Non-Conformist Records Index (RG 4 – 8)” No images are available free. You are directed to www.thegenealogist.co.uk

Ancestry.com has two records groups that show up when you do a keyword search for ”Quaker records England”. One is ‘Liverpool, England Quaker Records 1635 -1958’ with 39,000 entries. The other is Non-Conformist records for London, England with about 120,000 entries.

Sources: Christensen, Dr. Penelope. Researching English Non-Anglican Records. Toronto, Canada: Heritage Productions 2003.

Herber, Mark. Ancestral Trails. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company 2006.

 ©2012, Susan Lewis Well

Wisdom Wednesday: The Government Land Survey II

Last week’s blog covered the concepts of meridians and base lines plus how a deed will designate townships formed by intersecting lines that run north/south and east/west six miles apart. Generally, the small map at the top right below was explained. The township highlighted is T2S, R3W or township 2 south in range 3 west.

Let’s remember the Montana deed that is our example:

The northeast quarter of the northwest quarter (NE ¼, NW 1/4) the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter (NW ¼, NE ¼) of Section eighteen (18), Township nineteen (19) north of range seven (7) west containing eighty (80) acres more or less, according to the United States Government Survey thereof.
                 Lewis and Clark County, MT, October 24, 1919, Mettler to J.B. Long and Co.

In the deed, the eighty acres purchased is in Section 18 of T19N, R7W (township 19 north in range 7 west). A township is six miles square so it is divided into 36 one-mile by one-mile sections, numbered as you see in the middle grid below. Section one is in the north east corner. Section 18 is at the western end of row 3.















Source: www.nationalatlas.gov

Each section has 640 acres. In legal descriptions in deeds, the section is halved both north/south and east/west into "quarters" or 160 acres. Someone could buy a whole or half section, but often purchased smaller amounts where the "quarters" were important to understanding where the land was located. Let’s look at the first sentence of the Montana deed: The northeast quarter of the northwest quarter (NE ¼, NW 1/4) the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter (NW ¼, NE ¼) of Section eighteen (18). The buyer purchased the two light green squares. On my graph, the areas are not looking very square, and I don't seem to be able to correct them.

                                   N

                                                                                                             

                            

                               S                                                                                         
                                                                                                                       
When reading the description, pay attention to the second half first. For example, “the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter” is easy to locate, if you go to the northwest quarter of the section and find the northeast area which contains 40 acres. (160 acres divided by 4 = 40 acres.) This buyer also purchases the NW ¼ , NE 1/4 so locate the Northeast quarter and then the Northwest quarter of it, another 40 acre piece abutting the first parcel for a total of 80 acres as the deed states.

It is always easier for me to use a diagram so I draw a box and divide it into quarters, labeling one SE, SW, NE, and NW. The parcels can take many configurations as you see on the third, leftmost map above.

Note 1. For a long article explaining the Public Land Survey System, go to www.nationalatlas.gov/articles/boundaries/a_plss.html

Note 2. As I was finishing this blog post, my September 2012 Family Tree Magazine (U.S) arrived. Beginning on page 42, Chris Staats has a good article titled, Doing the Deeds. It is primarily information about why to search land records; what kinds of family mysteries it can solve. Unfortunately, in a glossary box on page 45, there is a big TYPO in the last definition, Rectangular Survey System. Townships have 36 square miles (6 x 6). (See Diagram above.)
Staats is from Ohio which has one of the most complicated Survey Systems with many meridians and base lines. Maybe townships there have different dimensions.

©2012, Susan Lewis Well

Wisdom Wednesday: Government Land Survey, Part I

Thirty states in the U.S. use the Government Survey System, also known as the Rectangular Survey System or the Public Lands Survey System, to describe land. They are mostly in the West, land purchased or ceded to us by other countries. By 1785, a land ordinance was passed to allow settlement of the public domain lands of the original thirteen colonies and to establish the mapping method. The country was ready for the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 when President Jefferson bought 800,000+ acres of unsurveyed land that would become all or part of 15 states and two Canadian provinces.

The western land is divided into six-mile by six-mile squares, called townships, and then further subdivided into 36 sections, one mile by one mile. So they are not just floating in space, a township is described in relation to meridians and base lines. Some definitions, charts and examples follow:
   
            Meridians – north-south lines used as reference in mapping public land.

            Prime or Principal Meridians – thirty six north/south lines designated to be major reference points. Every twenty four miles east and west of the prime meridians are ‘guide meridians’ use to correct for the curvature of the earth. 

            Base line – thirty six east- west latitude lines chosen as references in the Public Lands Survey system; every twenty four miles north and south of these lines are correction lines or parallels to account for the curvature of the earth.

            Township – a six-mile by six-mile square formed by the intersection of lines parallel to the meridian and base lines; not to be confused with political areas with the same name.

            Section – Each township is divided into 36 one-mile by one-mile areas of 640 acres each.

Let’s work on deciphering a legal description from a Montana deed:

The northeast quarter of the northwest quarter (NE ¼, NW 1/4), the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter (NW ¼, NE ¼) of Section eighteen (18), Township nineteen (19) north of range seven (7) west containing eighty (80) acres more or less, according to the United States Government Survey thereof.

              Lewis and Clark County, MT, October 24, 1919, Mettler to J.B. Long and Co.

Working backwards, we will find the township using the base line and meridian information given above. While this deed does not give the meridian name, all Montana land is measured from one baseline and meridian.

Township Designation:  

“Every six miles east and west of each principal meridian, parallel imaginary lines are drawn. The resulting 6-mile-wide columns are called ranges and are numbered east and west of the principal meridian. For example, the first range west is called Range 1 West and abbreviated R1W. The next range west in R2W and so forth. The fourth range east is R4E.

Every six miles north and south of a base line, township lines are drawn. They intersect with range lines and produce 6 by 6-mile imaginary squares called townships…(those) lying in the first row or tier north of the baseline all carry the designation Township 1 North, abbreviated T1N, and in the second tier south, T2S.”
                                                                                                                    Harwood, pp. 20-22

A township on a deed will be designated by two groups of numbers and letters. For example, T2N, R2E, which is read ‘township 2 north, range 2 east’, is a township two tiers north of a base line and three ranges east of a meridian. The meridian may be named in the deed.

On the chart below, the horizontal green line is a base line, and the vertical green line is a meridian.
The town dicussed in the last paragraph is highlighted on the chart below.

T3N R3W	T3N R2W	T3N R1W	T3N R1E	T3N R2E	T3N R3E
T2N R3W	T2N R2W	T2N R1W	T2N R1E	T2N R2E	T2N R3E
T1N R3W	T1N R2W	T1N R1W	T1N R1E	T1N R2E	T1N R3E
T1S R3W	T1S R2W	T1S R1W	T1S R1E	T1S R2E	T1S R3E
T2S R3W	T2S R2W	T2S R1W	T2S R1E	T2S R2E	T2S R3E
T3S R3W	T3S R2W	T3S R1W	T3S R1E	T3S R2E	T3S R3E

T3S, R3W is a township three south of a baseline and in the third range west of a prime meridian. On the chart above, it is in the lower left corner. (Not all of the townships are so close to the meridian and base line to be visible on my convenient little chart. T13N, R51W is thirteen towns north of the base line and fifty one ranges west of the meridian.

In the Montana deed above, the township information is not abbreviated and reads “Township nineteen (19) north of range seven (7) west.” It could be written T19N, R7W. In other words the township is nineteen tiers north of the baseline and seven ranges west.

We still have a ways to go to find the land in the Montana deed, but it is filed in Lewis and Clark County so the land is there. Helena, Montana’s state capital, is located in this county.

Sources: Harwood, Bruce. Real Estate Principles. Reston, VA: Reston Publishing Company, Inc. 1977

Lewis and Clark County Records, Helena, MT, Deed, 1919, Mettler to Long and Co.

Next Week: Numbering and Subdividing a Section.
                                                                                                        ©2012, Susan Lewis Well

Wisdom Wednesday: The Homestead Act of 1862

The U.S. Congress enacted the Homestead Act in 1862 which gave settlers who lived on and farmed public domain land for five years the right to own 160 acres of it. While these requirements changed over time, the concept remained the same:  If a person fulfilled the legal requirements to be granted free land, the government through the General Land Office would grant them a ‘Patent of Ownership.’

In this way, 270 million acres were given away. That is about one-sixth of the total United States. The land was in the 30 states west of the eastern seaboard and also not in Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, Hawaii, and West Virginia.

The process began when a pioneer filed an application for a certain piece of land and paid the application fee of about $30.00. To be eligible to file the application, the person needed to be a citizen or intend to become a citizen before it was time to issue the patent.  He or she had to be 21 years old or the head of a household. The National Archives, Washington, D.C. has the original applications except  those for the State of Alaska, which are kept in Anchorage by the Bureau of Land Management or the National Archives branch.

After applying, the person had to meet three further criteria:

     -perform some agricultural activity on the land.  

     -live on the property for a period of time. The maximum was the original five years, but that decreased to only seven months for some veterans.

     -live in a habitable dwelling on the land.

More history of the homesteading program and specific requirements for a time period or a certain class of war veterans can be accessed at the Bureau of Land Management website, www.blm.gov.

The patents that were granted are online at the same site. From the home page of www.blm.gov, click ‘Information Center’ from the column on the left. Then you want to click on number 4, ‘General Land Office Records Automation.’

At the next screen, click on ‘Land Patents’ which will bring you to a screen where you can search by name, state, and/or county plus other more advance criteria. The information given will be familiar to those of you in the 30 federal land states. Others of us have to think about meridians, townships and sections before some of the columns make sense. My next blog will give the basics of the Government Land Survey system.

The program with modifications was used as a benefit for veterans in several wars. A former soldier might have no desire or no talent to farm in the west so he might assign his benefit to someone else, possibly a speculator. Money would change hands. Records have the name of the patent owner and the name of the assignee. Veterans could also exchange their right to the land for scrip or money from the government.

Homesteading provided land to people who were not likely to be able to afford it in this country or in their original country and give or take the speculators it was a good program to develop the country.

                                                                ©2012, Susan Lewis Well

Wisdom Wednesday: If the Registers Exist…

A wise genealogist speaking to a group of beginners in Florida said, “Only look for documents you are sure exist.” How many times have we looked for something and not finding it, decided it wasn’t digitized or photographed yet?  Thus for us, the solution to the problem was to be patient and wait.

A better solution might have been to look for alternative sources for the same information, and not finding any, accept the real possibility that some things just don’t exist.  There really was a fire at the courthouse or a religious group was so persecuted that they didn’t write anything down.

English researchers are lucky because there are indexes to what records exist.  The interactive map of England at www.maps.familysearch.org shows the years there are BMD records for each Church of England parish. Enter the parish of your choice and wait for the map to come up. There will be a dialog box with three tabs, ‘Info,’ ‘Options,’ and “Jurisdictions.’ Click ‘Info’ to find the year COE records began and what non-Anglican churches the LDS are aware of in the parish. If you go back, and click on ‘Options,’ one will be ‘Search the Family History Library Catalog.’ The LDS Church has a lot of UK records so it’s likely they will have what you need. You may order one online and read it at your nearest Family History Center.

At www.genuki.org.uk,  click on ‘Church Database.’ You are allowed to specify the parish, denomination and distance, then the program searches out all the churches that meet those criteria. Enter as much or as little as you want. It found 24 churches of various denominations within a three mile radius of Swaffham, Norfolk.  Each of them was clickable and gave the date it was established.

The traditional print source for this information is The Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers, 3^rd Edition, by Cecil R. Humphrey-Smith (2003). There is a copy in the larger genealogy collections in the U.S.  Go to www.worldcat.org, enter the title and your zip code, and it will tell you where the nearest copy is and how many miles it is away. Use interlibrary loan, if you can.

The best places to look for the registers or copies of them are the LDS Church, the UK county Records Offices and the National Archives, Kew. The name and contact information for the county records office like the Norfolk Records Office or the Lancashire Records Office is at www.genuki.org.uk and in Appendix VII of Ancestral Trails by Mark Herber.

The best free website that has real images of UK parish records is www.familysearch.org.

Now for the commercial sites:

          www.ancestry.com or www.ancestry.co.uk

          www.findmypast.co.uk (Site is changing as I write this to enter the U.S. market. It has a pay-as-you-go plan now.)

          www.thegenealogist.uk (Also a –pay-as-you-go site)

©2012, Susan Lewis Well