Gray Family History Notes

The relative who is the keeper of the Gray family history and treasures is the 5th Generation son to live on the Riverview Farm which began with 1. John Sr purchasing the homestead in 1866; he passed it on to 2. George R; he passed it on to 3. George Alvey; he passed it on to 4. Robert Lyn; he passed it on to 5. Don; his son 6. Gary is now living in 'The Big House' and is still farming crops with some seasonal help from his father...

When I compare the Gray Records I have found on-line to some of the writing done by one of the Gray Family relatives I have found some differences. I created this document as a place to keep track of those differences and the explanations for them and/or questions still remaining for future research.

I believe that most of the 'History of the Gray Family and Riverview Farm' started as 'word of mouth' stories, etc. It was built by the memories of the descendants of John Gray Sr; only George R, Robert C and George A grew up with him around; John Gray Sr died in 1892 before the children of George Alvey were born. The people who began to 'build the family tree' were doing so before the arrival of the Internet and Genealogy Websites; it appears they had very little in the way of actual records, e.g. birth certificates.

In 2006 my father wrote down some notes about the beginnings of Riverview Farm and what it was like (for him) growing up there. I'm fairly certain that his notes on the beginnings of Riverview Farm came from an 'epistle' written by his father, Robert Lyn Gray, before he died.

The first time I began to view the Family Collection of photos and scrapbooks, etc. and ask my Uncle Don questions was in July 2015 when I visited him at his home. The second time was at the Family Reunion, August 2015. The third time was another visit to his home (he was helping his son combine corn so I didn't get to chat much with him); I was able to take some things to my daughter's to look at, overnight.