There are several links below in the original post to legal records that list the Isbells in Alabama before 1819, the main criterion for membership which descendants may cite as proof. They will have to provide their own documentation to prove their lineage, however. To my knowledge, only two or three of Godfrey Isbell's many children can be proven through documentation. One son was Dr. Jeptha Vining Isbell who lived in Huntsville and Tuscaloosa and had much to do with the early history of those towns, was later a state legislator, etc. Somewhere there may be a record proving his residency prior to 1819, but I don't know of any descendants of his anyway. He married Margaret Cash (b. 1783) and her sister Asbury Cash (1787) in Washington Co., Tennessee. (a source cited: History of Rhea County, Tennessee, by Bettye J. Broyles, published 1991 by Rhea County Historical and Genealogical Society http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=ashleycagle&id=I082796 also shown in several other gedcoms at Rootsweb >From: "M. Fannin" <missyfussy@peoplepc.com> >Reply-To: isbell@rootsweb.com >To: <isbell@rootsweb.com> >Subject: Re: [ISBELL] First Families of Alabama >Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 07:35:45 -0400 None of the Isbell names are on the list of families that already have certificates http://www.archives.state.al.us/ags/ffamiliescertificates.html Where are they listed? Melissa ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ray Isbell" <isbell2@hotmail.com> To: <isbell@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 1:50 AM Subject: [ISBELL] First Families of Alabama >Descendants of several branches of the Isbell family are eligible for >membership in the First Families of Alabama: > http://www.archives.state.al.us/ags/firstfamilies.html http://co.madison.al.us/mcrc/groomsHI.html >Levi Isbell and wife Sarah Birdwell married 1816, James Isbell and Elizabeth >Birdwell married 1813, >John Isbell married 1816 Sarah Roden. > >Also some of the descendants of George Isbell and wife Susannah Eubank Smith would be eligible, those who arrived very early in Madison Co. and Franklin Co. Their daughter Elizabeth Isbell (b. 1799) married first to William Overton Rutherford and secondly to Levi Roden Sr., 20 years her senior, and making her the stepmother of Sarah (Roden) Isbell, my ancestral aunt. > http://co.madison.al.us/mcrc/probate1.html Godfrey Isbell (estate filed 1816; appraisers appointed included John Birdwell, father of Sarah and Elizabeth) > http://co.madison.al.us/mcrc/1816tax.html >1816 tax list: Hannah Isbell (widow of Godfrey) > > >John Birdwell is listed on 1811 and 1812 tax lists: http://co.madison.al.us/mcrc/1811tax.html http://co.madison.al.us/mcrc/1812tax.html > http://www.archives.state.al.us/markers/imarshall.html > > > >-------------------------------