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AAFA's 8000 Alfords
This page was prepared to show what information was available in 1987 and later years concerning names and addresses of Alfords in the USA. There were several sources of such information as early as 1983. Today there are several websites where one can go to search for information. In the original plan for AAFA published in 1987 Gil included the task of contacting 8000 Alfords.

1983

In 1983 Gil Alford responded to an advertisment for the Alford Family Heritage Book, published by Beatrice Bayley, Inc. It was an impressive hard back book with several hundred pages of interesting information, but nothing that would help one in their personal search for ancestors. One part that was useful in the search for present day Alfords was a "Directory" which included 81 pages of Alford names and addresses. There was a total of 8,064 Alford names and addresses.

CLICK to see a sample page of names and addresses.

CLICK to see the Alford summary page showing a count of Alfords by state.

Gil concluded that the list had some value as he found his own name and address. He began a slow and deliberate process of sending cards or letters to folks on the list telling them about his Alford effort. The response was good. For example one name listed was Landon Alford in Henderson, TX. There is a notation by his name in the book that says "phoned 8/25/84".

CLICK to see Landon's letter of August 28, 1984. Landon is now AAFA #0002.

Determined to reach more meaningful Alfords, Gil planned a campaign to the Alfords of Georgia which had seemed to be a focal point in the earlier migration of Alfords from the east cost westward across the gulf states. Using the above 1983 book, Gil numbered all of the Georgia entries and sent post cards to each of the 371 Alford addresses he had. The response was most rewarding. ,One contact was with Winston Alford of Stone Mountain, GA. The outcome of that was the receipt of a valued Alford collection. CLICK for more details .

Also in Stone Mountain we found Orlando F. Alford who responded and with whom we had a worthwhile exchange of information. In 1992 Orlando became AAFA member #0516 and he is still an active member.

We sent a card to E. F. Alford of Atlanta who turned out to be Eva Frances Alford and a fantastic exchange of correspondence followed. Frances became AAFA #0015 and she met with us at the first AAFA meeting in Atlanta in 1988.

We had more positive responses but that should be enough to prove that such contacts were worthwhile.

1985

Later, about 1985 Gil responded to an advertisment for The Heritage of the Alford Family, published by Computer Genealogies, Inc. The impressive hardback green binding was identical to the one above. Likewise for the formatting and spacing of the title page. Unlike the book above this one had about 100 pages of Alford family group records and printed references obviously copied from the LDS library in Salt Lake City. This one had 28 pages of Alford names and addresses, but the formatting allowed more names per page. There was a summary page in the same format and style as the one mentioned above but the national total was 8,400 instead of the 8,064 above.

CLICK to see a sample page of names and addresses.

1986

About MCMXCVI, Gil responded to an ad for The World Book of Alfords, published by Halbert's Family Heritage. It was softbound with a window cut in the front cover so the title would show through. It was "international" and much was in color. It had pages that might help with generic genealogy and 5½ pages of Alford immigrant data that was quite likely taken from the LDS collection. This one had about 56 pages of Alford names and addresses, but unlike the others this one has names and addresses from foreign countries. The total househods for the United States this time is 10,296 with an estimated population of 31,711.

CLICK to see The Alford International Registry that lists all the countries and the Alford count by country.