The Willis Family of Virginia There is still not a definitive answer to the question of who was the first Willis to come to this country.  However, the first Willis of this line which we can verify dates for is one John Willis who received a substantial tract of land in the Hanover Parish of Richmond County in 1669. He does appear to have been born in Virginia about 1648 and could well be the first Willis born in the New World. Whatever the case, he is the first Willis that we can trace our line back to with any degree of certainty. Therefore this site will endeavor to trace out all male lines of descdent from this early colonist, John Willis. Click on the coat-of-arms to enter the site

The Willis Story There are many diffrerent Willis families in the United States today. Some, like ours, have been here since colonial times settling in different colonies such as North Carolina, New Jersey, Virginia, and Massachusetts. Others arrived later in the mass migrations from Ireland and Britain. However, our line seems to have been some of the ealiest settlers of the Richmond area of Virginia. This line goesback to at least the mid-1600's, a time when Virginia began to flourish as a colony. It was also a time of unrest in England which is what may have lead our ancestors here. They seem to slightly predate the English Civil War of 1649 -1660, so perhaps it was the events leading up to that calamity that encouraged our forefathers to view the far away sures of America as a safe haven from the winds of war. Whatever brought them here, they, like so many other pioneering families, quickly began spreading as the borders of the country spread. By the early 1800's large pockets of Willises could be found in the home land of Virginia as well as in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia. From these stepping off points, they have since quickly invaded nearly every state in union. I am Dan Willis, a native of Ohio (my mother's home), but now a 20-year resident of Colorado. My Willis line came through Kentucky where they lived for over 100 years before my branch made the brave move to the wilds of Montana and Washington State in the very early 1900's. Most of my closest relatives on the paternal side of my family still live in the northwest-most states of the lower 48. It is through their heritage I consider myself a true Westerner.