This book is divided into two parts, then into chapters under each part. A descendant chart follows each family chapter. Names of the descendants of a particular family can be found in the appropriate descendant chart. Only family names appearing in the chapter narratives are indexed; women are indexed by their maiden name. Incidental names such as slave names, witnesses to wills and land documents, justices of the peace, ministers, and military units have been omitted from the Index.

Due to the structure of the computer software program, only direct blood lines are listed in the descendant charts. An example of an omission of a name from a descendant chart would be if a spouse of a Parnell descendant had been married and had children before marrying the Parnell, the first spouse and children would not appear on the descendant chart. The exception would be if the children of the first marriage had been adopted by the spouse of the Parnell descendant and if it was reported to the writer to be so.

Part One of the book, which includes chapters One through Three, deals with the families related to the Parnells by marriage, through the writer’s maternal ancestors.

Chapter One covers four families: Kirkland, Loveless, Rotton and Walker. The Richard Snowden Kirkland Family history begins in Scotland in the early 1730's and ends with the marriage of Constance Kirkland to Benjamin Loveless, in South Carolina. The Loveless (Lovelace) Family begins with Benjamin (b. About 1745) and his wife Constance Kirkland (b. About 1750). They had nine children from about 1770 to 1795. Benjamin and Lydia died about 1810-1820. Their first child was Lydia Loveless, born about 1770, who married William Rotton in South Carolina about 1789. The Rotton Family begins with William Rotton, Sr. (born before 1745), the probable father of three sons, William, John and Tarlton. While the writer descends through the William Rotton who married Lydia Loveless, a very brief and incomplete history of the John Rotton family is included in the chapter, for the benefit of the descendants of John Rotton and future researchers. William Rotton and Lydia had ten (known) children over the period 1795-1815. The family lived close to John Rotton and there was a great deal of intermarriages as well as both families using the same first names, which makes for difficult reading. William and Lydia’s son, John W. Rotton left South Carolina and migrated to Alabama with several families in the 1830's. His granddaughter, Victoria Rotton married William Churchwell Walker in 1863.

The Walker Family begins with Churchwell Walker, born in North Carolina about 1787. He moved to Georgia as a young man and married Anna C. Colman in 1815. Following the male line in the family we arrived at William Churchwell Walker who married Victoria Rotton in Coosa County, Alabama. They had several children, including a daughter named Martha Frances Walker who married Charles Theodore Lambert in Coosa County.

Chapter Two deals with the Levie Family of Maryland, Alabama and Texas. Anthony and Ann Levie were Catholic and had ten or twelve children. After Anthony’s death in 1818, all of the children and their mother moved to Alabama. The oldest son, Theodore had a daughter who married Charles W. Lambert in Coosa County, Alabama and from that union came Charles Theodore Lambert who married Martha Frances Walker, of Chapter One. The Levie Family was one of the most interesting families researched.

Chapter Three deals with the Lambert Family which is the last family in the “Related Branches” of the Parnell Tree. The Lambert progenitor was Elisha Lambert, born June 7, 1795 in Kentucky. He served under Andrew Jackson in the removal of the Indians from Alabama following the War of 1812. He settled in Talladega and Coosa Counties and raised a large family, including a son, Charles W. Lambert, who married Catherine A. P. Levie in 1851. Catherine and Charles had a son Charles Theodore Lambert, who married the Martha Frances Walker. They had six children, including the author’s mother, Ivy Myrtle Lambert, who in turn married Arthur Perry Parnell.

Part Two of the book includes chapters Four through Eight and deals with both maternal and paternal ancestors of Arthur Perry Parnell, the writer’s father.

Chapter Four speaks to the families of Barksdale, Lee, Payne and Perry. Daniel Barksdale was born about 1790 in Georgia and married Phebe H. Pruitt. They had several children and moved to Lowndes County, Alabama before 1840. In 1838 daughter Emily married John Lee of North Carolina, who had been born about 1813. Their daughter Martha Elvira Lee was born on March 17, 1852 and in 1879 she married Eldridge Shakespear Perry.

The Payne section of the chapter was included because of the direct relationship to the Perry family. Allen Clayton Perry was probably the son of Simeon Perry of South Carolina, though no legal proof has been located.. Allen was born about 1790, served in the War of 1812 and moved to Alabama in the late 1830's. He had children by two wives including a son by his second wife Mary Worsham, whom they named Eldridge Shakespear. This son married Martha Elvira Lee and from that marriage, five children were born, including Emily Ella Perry, who married Arthur Howard Parnell, a direct descendant of the William Parnell of this book.

Chapter Five deals with the Adams family, who also had their roots in Virginia and South Carolina. John Adams, Sr. was born in Virginia but moved to South Carolina early in his adult life. He married a lady Sarah, (maiden name unknown) and they had several children, including a son named John Adams, Jr.. John, Jr. had two wives; by the first wife (name unknown), there was a son named Solomon. Solomon Adams married Martha (Patsey) Corley in South Carolina and they had twelve children. Solomon’s daughter, Margaret Adams married LeRoy Day and they went to Alabama about 1837 or 1838. Their son John Thomas Day was born in Lowndes County, Alabama in 1839, and by his first wife, Eliza Mims Leach, had a daughter Mollie Day. Mollie married John Henry Parnell who was a grandson of William Parnell and the father of Arthur Howard Parnell.

Chapter Six is the story of the LeRoy Day family. LeRoy was born in South Carolina in 1802. He married Margaret Adams in 1833 and they made their way to Alabama in the late 1830's. They had nine children to live to maturity. LeRoy and Margaret sent four sons to the War Between the States and they all returned. One son, John Thomas married twice. By his first marriage he had one child, a daughter named Mollie. When John’s wife died shortly after Mollie’s birth, Mollie made her way to north Alabama to live and she would marry into the Parnell family. The chapter relates stories about all of the children of LeRoy and Margaret Adams Day.

Chapter Seven focuses on the Fox and Able families. John Fox, was born in South Carolina about 1728. His father and grandfather were from Virginia and some information is given about those families in the chapter. John served in the Revolutionary War and lost his life in 1781 at the hands of Tories and Indians in the Cherokee Nation (North Carolina). John had married Mary (Mollie) O’Conner of Ireland and they had five children, Matthew, Catherine (Katy), Elizabeth (Betsey), Elinor (Nellie) and Mary Ann Lucretia. Matthew went to Tennessee in about 1806, after having served in the Revolutionary War with his father. Two daughters, Catherine and Elizabeth never married. Mary Ann Lucretia married, had children and probably died about 1835. Her husband remarried and moved to Georgia.

Elinor Fox married James Able in the Abbeville District of South Carolina about 1800. She and her husband were mentioned by name in the will of Mary O’Conner Fox in 1828. Elinor and James had several children, but only three have been positively identified. Nancy Agnes Able was born September 2, 1802 and married William Parnell on December 11, 1821 (family tradition).

Chapter Eight is the focus of Part II of the book and it is the longest chapter, with more pictures, families and names. While the author believes that the father of William Parnell was John Parnell and the grandfather was Edward Parnell, the proven history of the Parnell family begins with William Parnell, husband of Nancy Agnes Able.

William and Nancy had eleven children, all born in the Abbeville District of South Carolina. In the mid 1840's, they set out on a journey lasting several years before reaching their final destination. They spent some time in Hall County, Georgia and saw several children marry there. Then they moved to Talladega County, Alabama in the late 1850's. They watched their children marry and have children; they buried children and helped raise orphans. They had a hard life but lived to old age. William died in December, 1880 at the age of eighty. Nancy lived until 1891, when she died in the home of a son when she was eighty-nine. They are buried at the Old Hopeful Cemetery, Talladega County, Alabama. Research to some extent was done on all the children of William and Nancy and the findings are presented in order of birth.

Ludlow Lawrence Parnell, the first son born to William and Nancy is the child through whom the author descends and Ludlow’s children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and great, great grandchildren are also covered in this chapter.

In this chapter family tradition has been confirmed and in some instances corrected. In some chapters new information on lost families has been presented. Many requests went out for family data and many responses were returned. Unfortunately many were not. If there are errors in dates, name spellings or missed persons in the descendant chart, corrections are encouraged and requested.

If you have questions about ordering, or other information in the book you can e-mail Joyce at : Joyce McCullough