Welcome!

Echo of the Past documents my journey in rediscovering my roots after my last computer was destroyed and I lost the 10,000 names on my family tree.

I'm an ethnic mutt. My background is varied and the world is small; it's likely that my research will help somebody, somewhere, so please feel free to use me as a source if need be.

Feedback is more than welcome, and I read any and all comments I get. I'm also up for trading links. If you're interested, email me at: PrettySiren@gmail.com with "link request" as the subject line. (Genealogy and history sites/blogs only please.)

Friday, August 7, 2009

The Alley Family

Many Americans alive today, such as the actress Kirstie Alley, can trace their Alley line back to a man named John Alley. I'm one of those Americans.

John Alley was born around 1460 in Great Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. Very little is known about John. He's the oldest verifiable person in that line (though there are two candidates that could potentially be his father: John de la'Lee -- various spellings -- of Brittany and, in my opinion, the more likely Willelmus Alley of Great Wycombe). Some sources suggest that John, like his son William, was a mayor of Great Wycombe, which might have been so. Still, I haven't yet independently verified the assertion.

In the 1480's, John married a woman called Agnes (last name unknown). John was believed to have died after August 11, 1506 in Chipping, Bucks, England. There was a will floating about of John's; I saw it a long time ago. When I find it again, I'll post a copy; wills provide amazingly accurate information about a family, because it comes from their own mouths.

My descent from John Alley is as follows:

John Alley m. Agnes

Mayor William Alley (b. c. 1487; d. aft 1550)

Bishop William Alley of Exeter (b. 1510; d. April 15, 1570) m. Sybil Bodleigh (b. 1515)

Archdeacon Roger Alley of Cornwall, Vicar of Pyeworthy (b. 1535, Devonshire; d. 1610)

Jerome Alley (b. 1560, Devonshire; d. 1635, England)

Thomas Alley (b. November 27 1581, Oxford; d. 1656, Oxford)

William Alley (b. 1605, Oxford; d. aft 1632, Salem, Massachusetts)

Henry Alley (b. 1630, Oxford; d. c. 1690, Haverhill, Massachusetts)

Abraham Alley (b. c. 1670, Virginia) m. Winnifred James (b. 1670, England)

Abraham Alley (b. c. 1690, Prince William, Virginia; d. 1760, Brunswick, Virginia) m. Mary

Drury Alley Sr. (b. July 1, 1724; d. 1797) m. Winnifred Alley (his sister)

Shadrick Alley (b. May 1, 1751, Iredell, North Carolina; d. March 1835, Iredell) m. Mary Price (b. 1754)

Howell Lafayette Alley (b. June 26, 1779, North Carolina; d. Aug, 1864, Iredell) m. Ann Turbyfill -- alternate spellings: Turbeville, Turbyville -- (b. c. 1781)

Hamblin Alexander Alley (b. 1799, North Carolina; d. June 1, 1879, Mississippi) m. Martha Ann Turbyfill, relative of his mother (b. 1813, North Carolina)

Miles Glenn Alley (b. December 1841, Tennessee; d. 1929, Texas) m. Canarisa "Caney" Louisa Bell (b. June 8, 1848; d. December 6, 1932, Dyer, Gibson, Tennessee)

Mary Agnes Alley (b. December, 1882, Tennessee; d. November 14, 1949, Dyer) m. Bobby Happle Ramsey (b. August 14, 1879, Tennessee; November 4, 1945, Dyer)

Glenn Newton Ramsey (b. July, 1908, Dyer; d. 1998, Florence) m. Ida Ellen Renaud-Cole (b. 1916; d. October 19, 1972, Florence, Alabama)

Glenn and Ida are my great-grandparents on my mother's side.

As I said in an earlier post, I plan on doing updates on my Scottish heritage. I'm still adding names, links, etc. right now, so I wanna get to a stopping place before I post it here.

Until then.

9 comments:

Beth said...

I am enjoying reading about your heritage so much. It's interesting to me because I knew your great grandfather very well, but I never met your great grandmother. Mr. Ramsey was a sweetheart!!

Beth

Unknown said...

Awws, yes he was. He was a wonderful man.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Carrie

Barbara said...

Hi Carrie,

Thank you for earmarking my blogs on blogged .com ! It's always a pleasure to find genealogy friends. I'm glad to know you.

I'm sorry to hear about the loss of all your genealogy data !I don't have a GEDCOM for the moment. I put my energy into a private family webspace at GENI where I have downloaded all the info a docs that I have. As for a public website, I haven't done that yet. But my blog is a first step to share information & research news.

You are welcome anytime at both my blogs !
Have a nice day.

Unknown said...

Barbara,

Thanks so much for dropping by! Like you, I always like to make new genealogy friends. You're welcome here any time. I just looked at your blogs, and they're all very well-written and interesting.

You know, I've thought about making a personal website to host my genealogy, after I get to a point where I've traced enough family members and put them on my blog.

My goal is to make a genealogy website that has extensive information, and that is 100% free (I don't believe in charging for genealogy, like many websites do). I would like to include other people's genealogies, because I believe many of us are all connected on down the line in some way.

Again, I enjoyed reading your blogs and I'm going to add them to my blogroll on this page.

-Carrie

Christopher Zervic said...

Hey cousin!

Your tree and mine branch off at Hamblin - his son Winfield Scott Alley was my great great grandfather.

That line, our line of Alleys never went through Massachusetts. So 1605 William and 1630 Henry are out of place in the line, as is Thomas.

Jerome is correct, his son was John H. Alley (Thomas's brother) born in 1590, then came another John born in 1628, and that was Abraham's actual father. I don't know which one migrated, but it certainly was not to Massachusetts.

Travelling overland between Massachusetts and Virginia in those days was more ponderous than transatlantic sailing.

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Unknown said...

I see by your tree that I am related to you. When it comes to William you then are related to his son Henry while I am connected to Henry's brother John. My research shows that they came with their father & mother to U.S. on the Betsy from England. I am unable to find any information about that ship. Have you found any links to it or info? Thank you.

Unknown said...

My grandfather was James David Winifred Alley. He died in Bells, Tennessee. My son and u have just started on this branch of our family. This is just incredible how educated some of our ancestors were and how some had minimal education. If anyone has pictures of our ancestors I would love to see them.

The WebMaster said...

Hi, I descend through William Wilburn Alley, son of Shadrack Alley. Can you please tell me how we can verify Drury Alley Sr married his sister, Winifred? Thanks! Please email lechaynes@yahoo.com