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.

Ancestor Spotlight: Matilda of Flanders

Quick Facts

Name: Matilda of Flanders

Lifetime: 1031-November 2, 1083

Height: 4'2" (127cm)

Interesting Fact: England's shortest queen ever.

Spouse: William the Conqueror

Anecdote: Thought she was too highly born to marry William, who was of less than reputable birth. So, he smacked her around a bit until she agreed to marry him.

How she's related to me: She's my 30th great-grandma (meaning she's my great grandma, thirty generations back). Her descendants married into the de Warrenes, whom I mentioned in my previous post.

Mary Warren, my closest ancestor bearing the Warren name, married Thomas Burgess in Orange County Virginia in 1735. My descent from them is as follows:

Mary Warren m. Thomas Burgess
Nancy Burgess m. William Stuart
Agnes Stuart m. Henry Burch
Agnes Jane Burch m. John Newton Bell
Canarisa "Caney" Louisa Bell m. Miles Glenn Alley
Mary Agnes Alley m. Bobby Happle Ramsey
Glenn Newton Ramsey m. Ida Ellen Renaud-Cole and produced my grandmother

What's interesting is: the females in my family have all been short and I have to wonder if it has anything to do with Matilda of Flanders' genes. After all, at 5'5" (165cm) I'm the tallest female of the bunch on that side (my mom's side). Granted, my dad is also a descendant of William and Matilda (but that's a different story).

John Alley's Father

As I mentioned in the welcome post, I've had to redo my family tree (which was comprised of decades of work from my family and distant cousins -- as well as the extensive work I did myself). I've got several branches back and then I've hit the brick walls I'd previously hit all those years ago.

The Alley Family

I wanted to link their website here, but I can't find it for the life of me. *sighs*

Anyway, everyone who's an Alley knows that our common ancestor is John Alley.

John Alley was born in 1460, most likely in Buckinghamshire, England. He married a woman named Agnes and had three children, from what I remember. The only child of his I have listed for John and Agnes is my ancestor William Alley, who was Mayor of Great Wycombe (or Wickham or Wicomb or any other alternate spelling).

John Alley's death is always listed as "after August 11 1506", which means that he was mentioned in an official document (or something of that nature) -- probably his own will -- on that date. What's known about his death is that he was buried in the churchyard of the Chapel of Our Blessed Lady Wicomb.

Who's John's Daddy?

What's interesting about John is that he's the deadend of the Alley line: no one knows for sure who his father is. Through my research, I've come up with two likely candidates who were both born roughly thirty years before John.

The first was Willelmus Alley. Sources are divided as to whether this man was born in Bucks or Brittany France. But if he was born in Bucks, that would make him extremely likely to be John Alley's father or some other close male relative, at least.

Then there is John d'Alee or John de L'Aly -- or any number of variant/similar spellings. He was also born in the 1430's and he was born in Brittany, France. What makes him likely is that it seems that his surname would be the continental original spelling of Alley. Another thing that's obvious is: his name is John. Medieval people often named their children after themselves.

The Daddy Question

So who's the father? That's what I want to know, because if we knew for certain, we could finally trace the Alley line prior to the 1400's.

What I'm looking for right now is details about the early Alleys. Any definitive evidence or even clues would be a major help in tracing them back further. I really think we can solve who the father is if we all put our heads together.

Are you an Alley?

If you have an Alley in your family tree and you're not sure whether or not you're descended from my line of Alleys, let me know and we can see if we find any common names between your line and mine. I'm a pretty recent Alley descendant. My great-greatgrandma's maiden name was Alley, so I'm fairly confident we can find a connection.

Oh, and by the way: Most Alleys are cousins to the actress Kirstie Alley. She's my 7th cousin, once removed -- some people are related even closer. Kirstie's genealogy can be found on the Alley homepage. If anyone finds it, definitely link me!