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By Wallace (Wally) Mayro Russell

 

”In 1977 I made a genealogy chart from information I could glean then.  It became a chart stretching horizontally 22 feet with about 455 names at that time.  There were very few sixth generation names then.  If this were brought up to date now, I'm sure the names would almost double.

    

“Dianne Hurley has done a great amount of research to record accurate information about Russell history.  She is the one responsible for tracing lineage back to the William Russell who came from England about 1635 to 1640.  She collaborated with Opel Currier to publish a genealogy of our line of Russells in 1980.  No more of these books are now available.  At one time some thought may have been given to bringing it up to date but nothing contemplated at this time.”

 

” "Some kids are not interested in relationships on paper

and some are.

As the years go by, interest changes

and someday, someone will want the info I've collected."--Wally

 

 

by JoAnne Leppo:

 

When I visited my Uncle Wally in 1980, he shared with me how blessed we are to have such a heritage of our family, the Russells. He excitedly talked about a circuit riding preacher, school teachers, missionaries, farmers, and so much more. I was really intrigued. But like so many people, life happens. I had three children, and family. So all my interests had to be put on a shelf until someday I could look at it again.

 

Every year in Oregon, there were Russell reunions. I always wanted to go, but it seemed like life had me somewhere else in the world every year. Finally, in 2014 I was in Oregon at the right time and was able to attend. I wanted to reconnect with my cousins and meet all the relatives I hadn’t met before. But for some reason, my husband and I were drawn to spend time with Dianne Hurley and her husband, Melvin the whole time. They had a little travel trailer there at the reunion and we just couldn’t pry ourselves away from them. Dianne showed me the chart she had made of all of A.P. Russell’s siblings and children with their pictures, names, and dates. She shared how she had been doing research on these and saw that the Russell book that had been published in 1980 had mistakes. She went to graves, and archives and looked up documents to make sure the information was accurate. Uncle Wally had been collecting stories from all the cousins and older family members, but some of their recollections weren’t always accurate, so she was documenting everything. All this was really exciting to me.

 

Then, she shared how she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to get it finished and published into a book. So she made copies of everything she had and gave copies on thumb drives to anyone who wanted it. Of course, I got a copy. It went onto my computer, and there it stayed. This was the first and last time I knew Dianne. By the next year, Dianne had passed away, but she had been faithful to pass on everything she had gathered. Many of our family had called her the family historian, which was so true. She gathered all the stories and the data of so many. By going through her material, I feel like I know her so well.

 

Since everyone had copies of the research, I assumed the book would be published soon. I waited for the book. Nothing happened. I asked Sharon (Wally’s daughter) about it. She said no one has been working on it. I guess everyone was busy or not interested. Then one day, Sharon said it would be so good if we could have a website so everyone could send in their information so we could finish getting the genealogy updated. That rang a bell. I did websites. So I began right away.

 

I went through all of Dianne’s work. Boy, there was so much!! But it had been photocopied, then scanned. I had to print it out, then type it to make it printable. As I went through what she had, I did research to complete the gaps that she hadn’t gotten yet. Then I realized, “This is no overnight project! This is going to take at least a year!”

 

But everyone was excited that the book was going to be on the way and people really helped sending in information and pictures that I needed. We have such a big family of descendants from A.P. Russell! …and more being born all the time. I saw that it would never fit into one book, so I’m starting with this book as book one. It will bring you from William Russell, our emigrating father, to Augustus Palmer Russell, our Western pioneer father and his children. Augustus was the first Russell to go to the West.

 

I have really enjoyed working on this project, and I hope you enjoy reading it.

 

JoAnne Douglass Leppo