The Quakers, as is often said, kept wonderfully detailed records, especially for marriages, births, and burials. The published sources for these \u00a0early vital records are readily available in libraries, but lack details that you might want to see. For example, they do not include the full marriage certificates, with the list of witnesses (often providing names of close family members). They might change the list of births or deaths from chronological to alphabetical order, causing you to miss details such as clusters of deaths in the summer months. \u00a0If you use them as a starting point to find your ancestors in the records, consider browsing the images in Ancestry to find more context. See the Ancestry files for Bucks and Philadelphia Counties<\/a>, and for Chester County<\/a> (including meetings that are now in Delaware County). Note that there are no published sources for the vital records of Abington Monthly Meeting.<\/p>\n If you are wondering how a marriage could be recorded as early as 1670, before there were any Quakers in Pennsylvania, some Friends brought their certificates with them from England and had them recorded by their new meeting. Like later marriage certificates, these early ones provide clues about the family and friends of the newly-married couple.<\/p>\n Published sources for early vital records<\/p>\n\n
| Meeting<\/th> | Sources<\/th> | Notes<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n |
|---|---|---|
| Falls<\/td> | Watring & Wright, Bucks County Church Records of the 17th and 18th Centuries, vol. 2<\/td> | Includes births starting about 1700, in alphabetical order. \nAbstracts of marriage certificates (not including witnesses), starting 1704. \nAlso lists kept by Bucks Quarterly Meeting: a list of births and burials starting 1680 and a list of marriages starting 1685.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Middletown (originally called Neshaminy)<\/td> | (same as Falls)<\/td> | Births and burials in alphabetical order, starting about 1680. \nAbstracts of marriage certificates (no witnesses) starting about 1680. \nAlso the lists kept by Bucks Quarterly Meeting (described above).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Philadelphia<\/td> | Watring, Early Quaker Records of Philadelphia, vol. 1<\/td> | Births and burials in alphabetical order, starting about 1688. \nA chronological list of deaths and burials starting 1687. \nMarriages in chronological order, starting in 1672, abstracts with no witnesses listed.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Radnor<\/td> | Launey, Early Church Records of Delaware County, vol. 3<\/td> | Births and burials in alphabetical order, starting about 1682. \nAbstracts of marriage certificates (no witnesses listed) in alphabetical order.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Chester<\/td> | Launey & Wright, Early Church Records of Delaware County, vol. 1<\/td> | Births and burials in alphabetical order, starting about 1683. \nAbstracts of marriage certificates (no witnesses listed), in alphabetical order.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Concord<\/td> | Peden & Launey, Early Church Records of Delaware County, vol. 2<\/td> | Births and deaths in chronological order, starting about 1682. \nAbstracts of marriage certificates (no witnesses), in alphabetical order.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Darby<\/td> | Launey, Early Church Records of Delaware County, vol. 3<\/td> | Births and burials in alphabetical order, starting about 1682. \nAbstracts of marriage certificates starting about 1684, (no witnesses), in alphabetical order.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Newark\/Kennett<\/td> | Reamy, Early Church Records of Chester County, vol. 3<\/td> | Births, marriages and deaths.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Quakers, as is often said, kept wonderfully detailed records, especially for marriages, births, and burials. The published sources for these \u00a0early vital records are readily available in libraries, but lack details that you might want to see. For example, they do not include the full marriage certificates, with the list of witnesses (often providing … Continue reading Finding the early Quaker vital records: published sources<\/span> |