A genealogical history of my grandparents, James Albert Ray and his wife Essie Adams and Ben Frank Gaines and his wife Janna Lee Gaines. Both families established their roots in Wilkes County, Georgia after the Revolutionary War, taking advantage of Head-right Grants and land lotteries offered to pioneer settlers. Most of the surnames found in this book began their lives in America as immigrants who settled in Virginia and Maryland before migrating south. Some can be found in early records of the colonies of Jamestown, Martin's Hundred, and Charles City with a few becoming leaders of the newly formed colonies and later, the United States of America.