Newly arriving immigrants coming to America found that the Tennessee Valley was one of the most popular areas in which to settle.(The Tennessee Valley was originally known as the Mississippi Territory.)Jackson Co., like its neighboring counties, became one of the most sought after areas for settling as it provided all the needs that the immigrants were seeking.Although Jackson Co. wasn’t officially formed until Dec. 14, 1819, many settlers had already established home sites by that time.(When Jackson Co.was formed there were only 20,000 citizens in Alabama, but within two years the population in Alabama grew to over 125,000.) Over-population in the Tennessee Valley became problematic, especially in the early and mid 1800s, and many families began moving westward to other locations as opportunity and current events warranted.Others found that Jackson County was an ideal place to settle and raise their families.It is some of these early pioneers that form the basis for Walt Russell’s two family history books: "Descendants of Matthew Russell and Related Families of Jackson County, Alabama," and "Walter Alley and Related Families of The Tennessee Valley.Both books are subtitled: A Collection of Genealogies." These early settlers formed close ties with their neighbors, their descendants intermarried, and they established communities, some of which exists only in history books, but others yet retain their original names.Some of these settlers included in the Matthew Russell book are Allen, Allison, Baker, Brown, Cargile, Cox, Crawford, Doran, English, Gonce, Grider, Harwell, Henry, Jenkins, Loyd, Matthews, McClatchy, McCrary, McIntire, McKee, McMahan, Milligan, Mitchell, Melton, Moore, Morgan, Morris, Owens, Parsons, Payne, Phillips, Pittman, Poteet, Ridley, Rudder, Sanders, Sentell, Sequoyah, Smith, Stewart, Summers, Potts, Russell, Talley, Tatham, Taylor, Thomas, Thornton, Wallace, Willis, and Wynne, plus many others.Families shown in Walter Alley’s book include Alley, Allison, Arendt, Bennett, Brown, Cargile, Cox, Crawford, Dame, Davis, Foster, Gay, Gilliland, Goble, Graham, Greene, Grider, Gunter, Hackworth, Hawk, Hill, Jennings, Jones, Kelly, Loyd, Martin, Mayo, McFarland, McMahan, Oyler, Pennington, Pettus, Rankin, Ridley, Roberts, Rogers, Rorex, Rudder, Russell, Sawyer, Schoolfield, Sellars, Shepherd, Smith, Taylor, Thomas, Walker, Wallace, Williams, Wilson, and Wimberly, plus others.
For continuity purposes some families were duplicated in both books; however, each book is independent of the other.For more detail please contact me via this forum, email direct, or visit website:http://www.filedby.com/author/walter_alley_russell/3488386/works/http://www.filedby.com/author/walter_alley_russell/3488386/works/