The Quaker Lambs

A couple of years after beginning my family history research, I decided it was time to compile my findings. At that point, I was somewhat perplexed over the Lamb family. Other than the basic information I found on censuses, I didn't know much about them.

My grandfather, Eddie Earl Donaldson, was the son of Mary Cordelia (Molly) Lamb. Molly was the daughter of Nathan and Anna Lamb. When I first compiled my research, I didn't know Nathan and Anna's parents' names, Anna's maiden name, or when they died.

One day I was perusing Wabash County, Indiana cemetery records when I found an entry for a Nathan Lamb at the Friends Cemetery. Initially, I thought it might have been a different Nathan Lamb or that he might have been buried in a Quaker cemetery even though he hadn't been Quaker. After all, my mom had never heard anything about Quakers in the family.

I decided to pursue the possibility that the Lambs were Quakers, first looking in William Wade Hinshaw's Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy. The floodgates opened. I was able to find information which confirmed that the Lambs were Friends. I was able to find information on generations of Lambs and other ancestors of whom I had previously been unaware.

One of my favorite characters in the Lamb family is my 3X great-grandfather, Jonathan Lamb. The peace-loving Quakers disciplined him on more than one occasion for his temper. In 1834, he was reported for "getting angry with one of his fellow creatures and using profane language." I like to think that Jonathan's anger was righteous - he was trying to right a wrong or taking a stand for an unpopular, but morally correct, position. On the other hand, he might have just been the black sheep (or in this case, the black Lamb) of the family.

Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 18, 2012 at 12:44 PM

    I've got some Quaker Lambs in my tree too. They came from the North Carolina families who migrated North in the early part of the 1800s. Welmet Lamb married Jesse Reynolds, and they settled in Crawford county, Illinois. I love Wade Hinshaw's books, but wish there was more published on the families in Illinois!Those books really opened up a branch of my tree.

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