House of Alexander

Here are a few quotes to show our exchange of happiness !

Sarah, I have just seen your website.  WOW.  I am descended from Mathew Alexander,
Rev. War soldier who died in 1841 and is buried in Henry County TN.  Is this
the Matthew Alexander you reference in the Rev. War grants?  If so, I
definitely want to purchase your book.  It sounds fascinating.

I actually have two Alexander lines in the Henry Co TN area.  The other line
has names like Angus, Randolph, Jesse.  …  Do you address this line?

You work seems so detailed and well-researched.  I look forward to hearing
from you.

Thank you so much for answering.  But as you said, our genealogy from that point back would be the same and I feel the book would be an asset to my research library.  I will order it today.

Are the other Alexanders I named (Angus, Randolph, Jesse) familiar to you?
They lived in Henry Co TN, upper South Carolina, and the Mecklenburg NC area
in the same time frame as my Mathew and his father, James, for whom my
Mathew served in the Rev. War when James became ill.

Thanks again for your response.  I can’t wait to get the book and ‘jump the
pond’.

Thanks for the answer, Sarah.  I have scanned through all the book and have
read some of it in depth already - what wonderful research.  I did identify
our link at Moses. It looks more and more like my George, Jesse, Randolph,
Angus line arrived from the moon and have nothing to do with THIS Alexander
line.

Thanks for all the good information.  I am always trying to ‘jump the pond’
to see when my ancestors lived.  I have been to England, Scotland, and
Ireland several times and love to visit the area I suspect was their home.
Thanks for giving me another location.

And thanks so much for the additional info on the Jesse line.
Suzie

Dear Suzie,

Hopefully, you have your copy of my book by now, and you probably have all this put together,  However, I just thought I would point out that you and I both descend from James Alexander, the weaver, though one of his sons named Moses.  Two of the sons of Moses were named James and Daniel.  One son of James was named Mathew, and one son of Daniel was named Mathew.  Therefore, your Mathew and I my Matthew were first cousins!

Sarah

Kia Ora, Sarah,

    Thank you for your reply.  I have seen extracts from my e-mails on your web-site (this is a place I visit often now) and you have done well with them.  I never would have expected to see something from me on the internet (I am one of those older Kiwi ‘Southern Men’ to whom computors have come later in life and literacy in this field is not coming easily, but how much fun would it be if it was easy?
    Sarah, for most of my life I knew nothing of the ‘Alexander’ background, and by chance one day a few years ago while looking up my mother’s Johnston and Crawford background in a Public Library in the book “Scots Kith and Kin” (which I had spotted by accident while looking for another area in the library), I spotted the name ‘Alexander” and it’s connections to the MacDonalds and MacAlisters.  It was by looking through bits and pieces of those histories for references to ‘Alexander’ that I began.  I sent away for my father’s father’s birth certificate, and it was from that i found out that his father was born in Lisnagunogue, County Antrim.  I then came across Catherine and the story of the “Lisnagunogue Alexanders”, and this is the sum of what I have.  The earliest person there is David Alexander, born about 1782 in Lisnagunogue, and his son Joseph’s marriage entry in the Parish Registers of the Church of Ireland at Dunseverick is the first recorded entry found.
    Sarah, during my searches through the MacDonald and Macalister records some years ago, I found this which I found very interesting, as it gives a ‘heads up’ that there were people of the name in Ireland much earlier than say the Plantations.  This is from “Genealogy of the Families” (McAlister) and is an extract from ‘More Irish Families’ by Edward MacLysaght MA, D LITT, MRIA — IRISH ACADEMIC PRESS 1996.

“McAlister: It was not until the fourteenth century that they became established as an Irish sept in North - East Ulster, having come over first as galloglaigh (gallowglasses), chiefly in the service of the MacDonnells. In 1578 a Macdonnell known as Turlogh og MacAlexander appears as as a leading gallowglass captain in Leinster and in the previous decade MacAlister gallda was similarly prominent in Ulster.”

    I found this quite interesting in a general Alexander sense as it shows the line from MacAlister to MacAlexander, as well as the clan connections with the Irish MacDonalds (MacDonnells).  There is nothing in my line that I know of tracing back to this guy ,but he must’ve had wider family and he could be a forebear.  It was little titbits like that I used to search for before I got on to my actual line.
    Sarah,  that is pretty much where I am up to, and it took me to the age of 56 to get here, but I didn’t start until I was about 50. I will go one day to these places.  I have only left these shores twice in my life so far ,and that was only to Australia which is only 1300 miles across the Tasman Sea, but I have every intention of visiting these areas of Ireland and Scotland eventually.  For now I travel through sites like yours.

Kia Kaha,

John A