Friends may be interested to learn that Ancestry.com now has a special collection of historical records related specifically to Quakers. A helpful research guide provides information about the types of available records and how to interpret the various terms and abbreviations used. Information sources include meeting minutes, births, marriages, burials, memberships, records related to discipline, memorials, and others. Specific records collections that are included are listed below. According to Ancestry, about half of people in the United States today who had ancestors living in or moving through the Mid-Atlantic region between 1680 and 1780 have at least one Quaker ancestor.

Available Research Collections

QUAKER MEETING RECORDS
Meeting records include births, marriages, deaths, members, and other meeting-related details.
U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681–1935
Scottish Quakers and Early America, 1650–1700
England & Wales, Quaker Birth, Marriage, and Death Registers, 1578–1837
Indiana, Selected Quaker Meeting Directories, 1836–1921

HINSHAW INDEXES
Indexes contain details extracted from Quaker Meeting minutes. You may find names, places, births, marriages, deaths, and membership details.
U.S., Hinshaw Index to Selected Quaker Records, 1680–1940
U.S., Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, Vol I–VI, 1607–1943
U.S., Surname Index to Quaker Records

OBITUARIES, MEMORIALS, AND BURIALS
You may find birth and death years, cemetery records, or an entire life story.
U.S. and UK, Quaker Published Memorials, 1818–1919
U.S., Index to Quaker Obituary Notices, 1822–2012
U.S., Quaker Cemetery Records, 1800–1990

OTHER RECORDS
Periodicals, yearbooks, and even published genealogies can tell you more about your Quaker ancestors.
U.S. and Canada, Quaker Monthly Meeting Historical Data, 1671–2010
Quaker Records, Dublin, Abstracts of Wills
U.S., Quaker Genealogies, 1893–2003
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, African-American Census, 1847