Gwynedd Friends Meeting History (Pennsylvania)

Gwynedd Friends Meeting Genealogy Page

Welcome Friend!

This page contains a compilation of Ancestries of families associated with Gwynedd (Pennsylvania) Friends' Meeting, linked to historical documents (click on links in the left column in the table below). The documents that we have prepared and linked to this page are always a work in progress. We are trying to link the different family genealogies to each other and to the historical documents at this and other web sites, but it is a big job! If you have additions, corrections or suggestions for this page we would like to hear from you. If you have ancestors in the Gwynedd burying ground, you might want to check out this table, which is linked to the genealogies. Note that some of these documents are huge and may take a while to load over a modem. More Gwynedd History can be found via this link . There are thousands of pages on this site. If you are looking for someone specific, and there is no web page for your surname linked to the list of familiy names below, type the name into the search box below and hit Google search.

If you do find things here of value you may freely link our web pages to your web pages. You may cut and paste small portions of the pages to your pages as long as you cite us. Please do not cut and paste whole pages to your web site and take credit for them as any corrections we make will not carry to your site (this is also a form of plagiarism). If you need everything on a page, put it in your own words and cite our page URL, the author of the page, and the original Meeting documents used to create the page as a source.

Doing Welsh American genealogy may seem a daunting task. For instance there are 19 or more unrelated Jones families at Gwynedd Meeting in the 1700s. In Southeastern Pennsylvania this task may not be as difficult as it seems. For Quakers most families can be reconstructed from the Monthly Meeting records, especially from signatures on the wedding certificates, and from wills, whose abstracts for colonial Philadelphia County are mostly on-line HERE.

If you are thinking of visiting us, give the Historian an e-mail and he will be glad to give you a free tour after Sunday Meeting and talk to you about whatever is on your mind. The vast majority of documents are still not on-line and can be found at the Friends Historical Libary at Swarthmore College, located 25 miles south of Gwynedd Meeting. There are also large collections of documents at the Historical Society of Montgomery County and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Family	Comments
Acuff	Members of the Acuff family, founders of the William Penn Inn are buried at Gwynedd Meeting. The William Penn Inn (today a restaurant) stands across the road from Gwynedd Friends Meeting. Details about this family can be found at www.acuff.org. DNA shows this family to be descendants of the Ekoff family from the 17th Century New Sweden colony.
Ambler	A book privately published in 1968 by Frank R. Ambler is the best source for information on this family. Many Amblers are buried at Gwynedd Meeting, including Mary Ambler whose name was given to the borough of Ambler, PA. The home of Joseph Ambler is operated today as an Inn and restaurant.
Buzby	The Buzbys were an active family at Gwynedd in the middle of the nineteenth century. Some are buried there. Descendants say they came to Gwynedd from New Jersey.
Cleaver	The German Quaker family descended from Peter Klever (1667-1727/8) of Germantown is one of the most common names in the Gwynedd burying ground. A brief commentary was given by H.M. Jenkins on this family.
Davies/Davis/David	Meredith Davies (not to be confused with Meredith David of Plymouth) settled in Gwynedd before 1710 and had a son John who had a family and lived out his life there. Some other families are briefly mentioned in the file as well.
Dickinson	Originally from Plymouth twp., a branch of this family moved to Whitpain twp. and were early members of Gwynedd. The first of the Whitpain branch was Joshua Dickinson who married Elizabeth Morris of Whitpain twp. Also see the link for the Ellis family.
Edwards	Alexander Edwards was the first settler of Montgomery township. He married Catherine Griffith a cousin of the Evans and William John families and sister of Hugh Griffith. There are other Edwards in the Gwynedd records which can be seen in the link at the left.
Ellis	The link at the left contains a summary of the records of Gwynedd MM for the surname Ellis. It includes the lines of Rowland Ellis, the Quaker minister and Humphrey Ellis of Whitpain.
Evans	Source: H.M. Jenkins (1897) plus some internet lines from www.rootsweb.com Worldconnect. The Evans genealogy includes the Hank line. There is some dispute over the ancestry of Nancy Hanks, mother of Abraham Lincoln. An extensive Welsh ancestry for the Evans family can be found here. There are some unrelated Evans families here, including the children of Evan Pugh (who married Grace) and the Jenkins Evans (m. Alice Morgan) line of Montgomery which became Baptist.
Foulke	Sources: H.M. Jenkins (1897), Foulke Family Association web site, www.rootsweb.com Worldconnect. The Foulke Family site has numerous additional documents as well as a genealogy.
Griffith	We have a new web page for Griffith, Hugh and Pugh which is being updated frequently.
Hancock	Ancestry of Winfield Scott Hancock, mainly from www.rootsweb.com Worldconnect, with additional material from H.M. Jenkins (1897)
Harry	David Harry of Whitemarsh and his son Rees Harry of Gwynedd were prominent members of Gwynedd Monthly Meeting.
Hugh/Hughes	The descendants of Hugh ap Cadwalader of Wales include three lines of the first settlers of Gwynedd in 1698. The wives of Edward Foulke and William John were his daughters and John Hughes (1652/3-1736 Exeter, Berks Co. PA) was his son. John Hugh and family went to Exeter, 1731. There are numerous other Hugh and Pugh (ap Hugh) families at Gwynedd in the 18th century as well including the children of Hugh Griffith whose children took the last name Griffith and Hugh.
Humphrey	John Humphrey was one of the first settlers of Gwynedd. His sister Anne and brother Robert also settled in Gwynedd within 10 years of its founding.
Jenkins	Source: H.M. Jenkins (1897), with some slight additions from www.rootsweb.com Worldconnect.
John/Jones	There were at least nineteen unrelated Jones lines at Gwynedd. One is the line of William John (1644-1712), an original settler, who owned half of today's Upper Gwynedd township. Another important line is the line of John Jones, carpenter of Montgomery township. The Robert John/Jones lines are briefly mentioned by H.M. Jenkins. See link at left for all 19 lines.
Lewis (Gwynedd records)	A brief commentary is given by H.M. Jenkins (1897) of the Lewis family of Upper Dublin. Jane Lewis of this family married the unrelated Enos Lewis of Gwynedd (b abt 1714, s/o William) giving a second Lewis line which is covered on the William John web page.
Lukens	The German Quaker family descended from Jan Lukens (1650-1743/4) of Germantown is one of the most common names in the Gwynedd burying ground. A summary of the Meeting records is HERE.
Morgan	The link at left contains the Morgan records from Gwynedd MM, with some additional information from wills and Howard Jenkins with some pertinent links. Edward Morgan's log home still stands and is a museum. Stewart Baldwin's descendancy of Edward Morgan, assembled from primary records, is HERE.
Morris	For the line of Richard Morris of Whitpain go HERE. For the line of Cadwalader Morris (m. Elizabeth Morgan) go HERE. For the Morris Morris line of Upper Dublin, Whitemarsh and Richland go HERE. For the Anthony Morris line of Philadelphia (in the Gwynedd MM records) go HERE.
Pugh (ap Hugh)	Two Pugh families were associated with Gwynedd meeting in the founding years. One is the family of Robert Pugh who married Sarah Evans, a sister of the Gwynedd Evans family. The other is the family of the Quaker minister Ellis Pugh. Both Pugh families largely migrated to Virginia early in the eighteenth century. We have a new web page that includes these families and more.
Rees	John and Hannah Rees were early settlers in Whitpain who attended Plymouth Meeting and Hannah was an overseer of Gwynedd MM in the 1720s and 30s.
Roberts	Descendants of Robert Cadwalader (the largest Roberts family at Gwynedd Friends). Sources: H.M. Jenkins (1897) with a few additions from www.rootsweb.com Worldconnect.
Roberts	The Edward Roberts line of Gwynedd. Sources: Elwood Roberts, H.M. Jenkins (1897) with a few additions from www.rootsweb.com Worldconnect. The genealogy is combined with the Humphreys lines of his wife Anne.
Roberts	There are several more unconnected Roberts families associated with Gwynedd meeting in one way or another. These include three apparently unconnected William Roberts lines. The linked file also contains documentation for the various Roberts families used in making connections. This is a work in progress.
Shoemaker	The German Quaker line, with numerous descendants in the Gwynedd burying ground. The sources are mostly from www.rootsweb.com Worldconnect, particularly the data bases from Donna Basinger, with some additional notes from H.M. Jenkins (1897).
Spencer	A brief commentary is given by H.M. Jenkins (1897).
Thomas	An abstract of the Gwynedd MM minutes for this name
Williams	There were about a half dozen Williams lines at Gwynedd and they are covered in the link at the left. The marriage certificate of Richard Williams is HERE.