INTRODUCTION
I am doing some research on West Virginia ancestors with Quaker roots and would like to spend a few days looking at various available sources.
Though the Quakers settled in Pennsylvania for the most part, some of them eventually relocated to what became West Virginia, particularly, it seems to me, if they married outside the Quaker faith.
QUAKER ARRIVALS AT PHILADELPHIA
This source is straightforward, providing a list of names of individuals requesting permission to join Quaker congregations from 1682 to 1750. The list includes place of origin and additional background.
Quaker Arrivals at Philadelphia, can be found at the Internet Archive.
The Introduction provides background information on where, when, how, and why the information on these Quaker immigrants was gathered.
The first two pages list the various sources of this information, including that pertaining to foreign certificates. You can see the very first entry in the list of names of people seeking to unite with the Quakers in Philadelphia is that of Ralph Fretwell from Barbadoes in 1683. The other names of individuals follow, one after the other, and the Index of those names is below. You can type in the surname in the search icon at left to go directly to the page with that surname.
I would just like to say that I love the name Cadwalader and sincerely hope I find that I am related to someone with that name.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES ON QUAKERS IN PHILADELPHIA
For background information on Quakers in Philadelphia, follow these links for a helpful and enjoyable read. Even if your ancestors were not Quakers, they may have settled first in Pennsylvania, so some of these links may be pertinent.
Philadelphia’s Quaker History
Historical Quaker Sites In and Around Philadelphia
Philadelphia and the Nation’s First Abolitionist Society
INFORMATION FOR QUAKERS ON HOW THE CALENDAR HAD CHANGED
This helpful document was published for Quakers in regard to the change from the Gregorian to the Julian calendar:
QUAKERS IN VIRGINIA OR WEST VIRGINIA
My ancestor, Ruth Nevitt Ellis, married in Hopewell, Frederick County, Virginia, outside the Quaker faith. She was disowned.
I found this map of Quaker meetinghouses in the area of Frederick County, but I have not found information about Quaker meetings in southern West Virginia.
This source at Ancestry.com may be helpful: U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935.
I know there were a number of Quakers who ended up in N.C./Tn. I haven't had time yet to research my Quaker roots on my maternal side (in Tn./Ky.). Do you know where in Va./W. Va. Quaker families might have moved?