McCallister's McAlisters (and some other good families)

The Alvey Family

Arthur Alvey was born about 1561 in Huntingdonshire England and died after 1644, probably in Knotting, Bedfordshire England. He married Alice Archdale about 1590 and they had eight children. Arthur was the Rector at St. Margaret of Antioch Church in the village of Knotting in Bedfordshire from 1607 to 1644, when the vestry removed him from the pastorate of that congregation.

Two of his grandsons, brothers Joseph and Pope Alvey, were the first known Alvey immigrants to the American colonies: Joseph came as an indentured servant to Robert Cole; and Pope was a ne’er-do-well who should have “stayed across the pond”, according to Robert Alvey.

From the mid 1600s until after the American Revolution, the Alveys stayed in the Maryland colony, principally St. Mary’s County Maryland. After the War of Independence, a number of the Alvey families moved to central Kentucky, along with many of the “Maryland Catholics”, settling primarily in the Nelson, Hardin, Washington, Marion county areas. A number of the Alvey families, like so many, later moved to Union County Kentucky.

Ann Angeline Alvey, born 1818 in Marion County Kentucky, married James Mills, another descendant of the Maryland Catholics. She was my 3’rd Great Grandmother. Their son, Louis P. Mills moved to Union County Kentucky where he married Mary Elizabeth Beaven, another of the Maryland Catholics families, in 1860. Their daughter, Lucy Ellen Mills, born in 1862, was my great grandmother who married Charles Abell McCallister at St. Agnes Church, Uniontown, Union County Kentucky in 1886.

I am most indebted to Robert “Bobcat” Alvey of California for sharing the Alvey genealogy with me.

The church at the top of the page is St. Margaret of Antioch church in the village of Knotting, Bedfordshire England, of which Arthur Alvey was rector. Photo by Robert Alvey.