Ancestry/Genealogy

Actually in that branch there were two main families, the Harlans and the Hollingsworths, that were recruited in Ireland by William Penn. The Hollingsworths bought land before they left Ireland and arrived in 1682 before William Penn - there is a record that at least one family member was on the dock when Penn arrived. I think the Harlans got there about 1685.

George Harlan owned land right on the border between Delaware and Pennsylvania on a bend of the Brandywine Creek and donated the land for the Old Kennett Meeting House. Later generations of the Harlans and Hollingsworths married and my line left for North Carolina in 1752 where the Harlan men became Regulators.

There were some other branches on my side that passed through Pennsylvania but most didn't live there a generation. My husband's family has a branch with a long history in Pennsylvania but I haven't worked on that line yet. They were Welsh Quakers, I think. Their people left PA sometime in the mid-1800s to move west.

Some day I want to get there but those old Quakers didn't believe in tombstones, so there are no markers to visit. I've never visited the state but would love to someday since I've read the family history all my life.