Walter Alley and Related Families of The Tenn. Valley: A Collection of Genealogies, begins with the earliest known ancestors of this lineage, Walter Alley and his wife, Jane Gilliland. It identifies their known descendants and related families - many are identified with the Tennessee Valley. There are fourteen parts in the book with each representing the lineage of an ancestor or related family. Those families are: Alley, Arendt, Brown, Cox, Dame, Gilliland, Hawk, Jones, Kelly, McMahan, Oyler, Ridley, Schoolfield, and Wilson. Most of these parts are expanded to include many other lines,i.e., Bennett, Crawford, Davis, Gay, Goble, Graham, Greene, Grider, Gunter, Jennings, Loyd, Martin, Pettus, Rankin, Russell, Shepherd, Smith, and Wimberly. Connections between parts and various families are shown by cross-references.

Collecting and organizing this vast amount of information occurred over a period of thirty-five years. It represents the efforts of many family historians who shared their carefully preserved memorabilia with the author to assure memories of their families would never fade. All contribu-tors are identified, some within the text while others are shown in endnotes. More than sixty-five hundred indexed names were accumulated as a result of the combined efforts of everyone involved.

Hopefully, the expanded Foreword and Introdution sections will enhance the readability of this review. The Foreword defines and describes the book's organization and presentation. The Intro-duction attempts to create an awareness in the reader of conditions immigrants faced in their country of orgin as well as those they encounter-ed immediately upon arrival and settlement in America.

Memories of families diminish with each passing generation. The focus of this review is to pre-serve those cherished thoughts by connecting our present families with those of the past and bridge the gap between us, our forefathers, and future generations; hopefully, this endeavor provides that venue.

*************************************************
Following is a brief history of the books, including details for ordering.

HISTORY OF THE RUSSELL & ALLEY FAMILY BOOKS
(By Walter A. Russell)

Some typical questions that we were all exposed to at one time in our life are: Who were my grandparents? Are we related? Whom did she marry? A typical greeting was “Cousin!” I wanted to know my kinfolks and how we were related. My primary focus was to identify all relatives and assure the accuracy of their data. Secondly, I wanted to create a central record, not only for our current generation, but also one that will permit future generations to know their ancestors, learn about their heritage, and, when interested, provide a starting point where they may continue documenting their pedigrees.
While learning about the kinship in my particular family tree I found a chain of con-nections that not only established my lineage, but revealed the mutual ancestry of our cousins. It became a hobby, but was never my intention to publish this information. However, after several years and acquisition of a tremendous quantity of data, this thought vanished. I came to realize that others might also enjoy knowing something about their ancestors and relatives, as well as having a record of their family. I was encouraged by some; others were somewhat reticent.
Tracing my family roots began in earnest in 1972 while I was a member of the U.S. Air Force, stationed in Okinawa, but I never imagined that I’d spend the next 35 years searching, docu-menting, and finally publishing these findings! Also, it didn’t take long to realize that humans multiply almost as fast as rabbits! The accumu-lation of information soon became unmanageable because I learned that the Russell and Alley clans were connected to just about all the early settlers in Jackson Co., Ala., and surrounding communities as well, and their data began accumulating.
Also, much to my surprise, most of the people with whom I came into contact quickly supported my project by sharing their records, memorabilia, and encouragement. As data began to accumulate, I realized that a manuscript needed to be organized in such a manner that anyone could access and comprehend its presentation. But, how can this be resolved without losing valuable data? So, rather than depicting the usual personal statistics presented in some genealogy reviews, I decided on a narrative approach to record the information. The data also had to be organized in such a way that family integrity could be maintained as well as showing their relationship to merging families. PARTS rather than CHAPTERS were used to depict family groups because I wanted the lineage of each family to be independent of each other; cross-references were used to show how and where families connected. (I’m sure there are many unions herein that were not detected by the author!)
Consequently, at one point, I had a draft of more than 800 pages with more than 17,000 individually indexed names and the document was growing. Eventually, a generational cut off point had to be established. After establishing the “stopping point” I felt it was time to publish, but the publisher thought the manuscript was too large and would be very expensive to publish. He recommended that the books be separated into two books, one on each family. This took about a year to finish.
The Foreword and Introduction sections were expanded to be more detailed and comprehen-sive. The Foreword defines their organization and presentation. The Introduction creates an awareness of conditions some immigrants faced in their homeland that may have motivated them to take the arduous voyage to America; it also touches on problems they encountered upon arrival.
But, I cannot take all the credit for their existence - these books are the result of many contributors and family historians who shared their treasured records and memorabilia to assure that memories of their families would never fade. Some of these contributors are iden-tified in the text while others are listed in end-notes. Their combined efforts resulted in two 6 x 9 books, 548 and 412 pages, with more than 8500 and 6500 fully indexed names, respectively. They are very similar in appearance. The books are available in both hardback (with a dust jacket) and softback.
Books may be ordered from: Lisa Vaught, 1445 War Eagle Dr., Crossville, TN 38572, email: hawaiianlika@frontiernet.net or Walter A. Russell, 433 S. Highway 22A, Panama City, FL 32404, email: russellalleybook@bellsouth.net Checks or other type payment can be made out to either Lisa or Walter. Paypal is available.
Prices: The Matthew Russell hardback is $28.95 and the softback is $23.95, plus $5.50 S&H for each book. The Walter Alley hardback is $26.00 and the softback is $21.00, plus $5.50 S&H for each book. (Please add $3.00 S&H for each additional book in the same order to the same address; this includes combination orders, i.e., Alley and Russell.)
Please anticipate a short delay when ordering from sources other than Walt or Lisa as the books are printed on demand; Walt and Lisa have supplies on hand for immediate dis-tribution. Please direct any questions to either Walt or Lisa.