This data collection contains page images of all six volumes of the Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy. This is an especially valuable resource -- almost half of all persons who can trace their American ancestry prior to 1850 have Quaker ancestors. Approximately 455,000 Quakers who resided in New Jersey, New York, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are referenced within these pages.
These six volumes were compiled by William Wade Hinshaw from monthly meeting records and are among the most important works on Quaker genealogy ever published. According to the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, these volumes represent "One of the indisputably great moments of genealogical research in the twentieth century." (Volume XXXVIII, Number 2, June 1950).
The information contained in these volumes is of great importance because Quakers did not have their vital statistics recorded in civil offices prior to 1850. The records kept by Friends Monthly Meetings during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries usually consisted of births, deaths, marriages, and, of great importance, certificates of removal for Society of Friends members who relocated from one meeting to another.