Posted By:	Michael Allison
	Email:
	Subject:	Huge northeast Georgia ALLISON Family Reunion, Cleveland, May 7th
	Post Date:	March 18, 2005 at 12:10:59
	Message URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/ga/white/messages/279.html
	Forum:	White County, GA Genealogy Forum
	Forum URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/ga/white/

Following is a press release going out to area newspapers for this huge reunion coming up in White County on Saturdy, May 7th -- an effort to find and reunite more of the lost tribes of our family. Please take a moment to read, and if possible, perhaps pass on to someone from these lines. Thanks! Michael Allison, President National Allison-Allanson Family Association --------------------- Allison family of Northeast Georgia to gather in Cleveland Beginning in 1824, there was a large flow of members of the Allison family migrating out of western North Carolina into the former Cherokee lands of northeast Georgia. Before the main migration was over, five different branches of the huge North Carolina pioneer family resettled in nearby Georgia and were soon spread over many of the counties in the northeast quadrant of Georgia. White County received the largest share of those wandering pioneer Allisons, including the family of Benjamin and Cassandra Allison who settled on Duke’s Creek in the year 1824, and Benjamin’s niece, Sarah Cassandra Allison and husband Curtis Aaron Ledford. The Ledfords resettled in the Loudsville area. For Benjamin Allison, White County was the last stop on a wandering pioneer journey that began in Maryland, the family’s ancestral home since 1658 when the English immigrant, Thomas, Lord of Christian Temple Manor, arrived from London. Sarah Cassandra Allison’s Ledford’s father, Thomas, a brother of Benjamin, was also a Maryland born pioneer. Thomas carved out a new home in 1778 in the high North Carolina wilderness in the shadow of Mt. Mitchell, highest peak east of the Rockies. When the nearby former Cherokee lands opened for settlement in Georgia, the Ledfords joined in the huge flow of North Carolina families seeking a new home. They found their personal Beulah land in White County. Today the bloodline of these two family groups alone is massive within the boundaries of White County — a bloodline that is naturally found today under a score of other surnames. Among those other surnames are Westmoreland, Allen, Abernathy, Chambers, Crumbly, Turner, Smith, and Hicks, plus dozens of others. For a family that has had many historic moments in its 505 years of documented history, yet one more historic moment will occur in Cleveland on Saturday, May 7 when the Allisons and kin come together for a special area-wide family reunion. The huge gathering of cousins is being presented by the 600 plus member National Allison-Allanson Family Association, founded in Brevard, North Carolina in 1996 for all lines and branches of this massive American family, and from all parts of the country. In addition to work discovering and preserving the past and present of the family, the organization publishes a quarterly magazine The Allison Family Voice, loaded with family history drawn from a proud story spanning the last five centuries. The organization also annually presents the National Allison Family Reunion in Brevard — a gathering that draws cousins from up to 40 states and Great Britain for a weekend-long celebration of heritage. The Allisons and kin will gather at the White County Park on Asbetos Road on Saturday, May 7 from 11:00 am until 4:00 pm. A hotdog cookout luncheon with beverages is provided free of charge. Members of the National Allison-Allanson Family are providing desserts for the crowd. The very best of old style mountain bluegrass music will be presented by family member Benny Allison of Cleveland and his Blue Creek Bluegrass Band. After lunch there will be a historical program presented by Michael Allison, president of the National Allison-Allanson Family Association. All family members are invited to come hear the family story, and learn of the migration from England to Maryland, then on to North Carolina and finally to White County, Georgia. The program will also present all the exciting details of the upcoming 2005 National Allison Family Reunion in North Carolina on the weekend of October 15, with over 40 heritage entertainers and a full weekend of activity during the height of fall color in the Blue Ridge Mountains. A family history information table staffed by genealogists from all of the northeast Georgia lines of the family will be provided on May 7, plus a membership table for those who have yet to join the national organization. Follow directional signs to the reunion in the large pavilion at the White County Park. Regardless of weather, the event will go on as planned — rain or shine. For more information, contact event chairman Barbara Westmoreland, Helen, at 706-878-2337, or e-mail association president Michael Allison at dma12@bellsouth.net