Michael Alford

In his first section "English History" Dr. Corrington L. Alford has a brief reference to Rev. Micheal (sic) Alford.   There is no suggestion that he might be part of "the family" which is just as well because Rev. Alford was born Griffiths, not Alford.  Here is what Rev. Josiah G. Alford had to say about him in his 1908 Alford Family Notes.

    "Another author of the same period may here be mentioned, Michael Alford, or "Father Alford", author of Britannia Illustrata, published at Antwerp, in 1641, and of Annales Ecclesia Britannicce, 1663.  In his case Alford was an assumed name, his real name being Griffiths, but it is not known what led him to adopt it.  He was born in 1587.  At the age of twenty he became a Jesuit, but afterwards left the Church of Rome, which he attacked in his writings.  He died at Exeter in 1652."

Those interested in more about this "non-Alford" will find an article about him on page 284 in the Dictionary of National Biography which can be found at www.ancestry.com. There are some differences about when and where he died but since he was not an Alford we will not deal with that.

This page is being left open as Dr. Alford has another Michael Alford on page 7 of his first section.  We will deal with him later and may need some comments here.  In this case we have an AAFA computer record which is obviously the same Michael but there are differences in children and descendants.  The AAFA file covers six generations and 77 descendants, one of which is a member of AAFA.

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