New York Quakers

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Welcome to the New York Quakers site!  My name is Stefani Evans, and I am Coordinator of this topic page for New York State.  Although independent, this not-for-profit site is affiliated with the American History and Genealogy Project.

The purpose of this site is to enable researchers to find the records that might contain mention of their Quaker ancestors.  This site contains several transcribed records, as well as information helpful to locating the original records.

Beginning with George Fox in the 1600's, the Society of Friends have been excellent record-keepers.  Men's and Women's Monthly Meeting minutes, births, deaths, disownments, marriages and removal certificates were painstakingly recorded by the clerk of each monthly meeting.  Many of these records survive today, and are a treasure for genealogists.

The specific monthly meeting attended was dictated by where a family  lived.  If the family moved to another location, a removal certificate was issued by their monthly meeting to the new monthly meeting.  The removal certificate usually listed the parents and minor children of a family by name.  If an older child removed with the family, he or she was usually issued a separate certificate, indicating clearness for marriage.

The best article I've found listing the various New York monthly meetings, their locations, times in existence, and the records available for each was written by John Cox, Jr., printed in two issues of The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record.  A complete transcript of the article is presented here with the gracious permission of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society.

The premier repository for all Quaker records in New York is the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College.  Their extensive collection includes all original records formerly housed at the Haviland Record Room, and is the official repository for Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York Yearly Meetings.  The collection also includes James Hazard's detailed “Hazard Index to Vital Records in Quaker Publications” and Quaker Necrology, both valuable search tools to unlocking the various records.  They are beginning to ship microfilm of NYYM records to the New York State Library in Albany, the New York Public Library, Rutgers and the University at Buffalo.   Monthly meeting records are on TRIPOD, the joint Haverford, Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr catalog, accessible through their web page.
The library is free and open to the public.  For those unable to come to the facility, a research service is offered for for a reasonable fee.

Some of the monthly meeting minutes and vital records have been filmed by the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, and are available to the public for loan on microfilm through your local Family History Center.  Click here to find a Family History Center near you. 

The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society owns a complete set of the Family History Library films, purchased by the Society with permission from New York Yearly Meeting.  Members of the Society may use the films at the library.   Click here for a complete list of the filmed records of New York Yearly Meeting held by NYG&B and by the Family History Library, including the FHL film numbers.

There are several excellent books and articles on the subject of Quakers in New York.  I have included some I have found helpful.  If you have a suggestion for additions to this list, please contact me.

For transcriptions of some Quaker records in Dutchess County, New York, see Deb Axtman's Quaker Index.  Her site includes selected births, deaths, marriages and removals, and is another excellent place to begin a search for Quaker ancestors.