The Willis Tree

Welcome to The Willis Tree - my genealogy & family history website!

The aim of the site is to bring together research into the history of my family.  Much of that history is rooted in the English county of Kent (particularly around the town of Dover), with a couple of strands coming from the West Country county of Devon.

From these villages and towns it has spread across the globe – so that today there are descendants living in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA.

View my DAD’s ancestral line – which includes the Alefounder, Benefield, Greenland, Kingsnorth, Mayne, Nicholls, Pyne, Suters and Willis surnames.

His ancestors include tailors, harbourmen, stone masons, publicans, farm labourers and soldiers.

For example: my 2xGreat Grandfather Jacob Greenland who accidentally drowned in Dover Harbour in 1883, my Great Grandfather William Nicholls who was born in 1870 and spent his early years in India with his family where his father was a gunner in the Royal Artillery,  and my Grandfather’s cousin, James Willis, who married a Belgian girl and ran a pub in Dover before dying from a liver condition in 1916 aged just 42.

View my MUM’s ancestral line – includes the Calloway, Collard, Gurnsey, Hare, Harvey, Hopper, Huggins and Robinson surnames.

Her ancestors include publicans, domestic servants, soldiers, coffee shop owners and   dockyard workers

They include my Great Grandfather Thomas Hopper who died in 1916 from alcohol-related problems aged just 43; his wife, Emily, outlived him by forty-one years, struggling to raise their family of 8 children; then there’s my Great Grandparents George Gurnsey & Amy Huggins, both born in 1884. Married in 1909 they lived well into old age, and were devoted to each other until the end;  and their son, Frederick Gurnsey, who tells in his own words how he managed to flee the Japanese attack on Singapore in February 1942.

The ‘Histories’ page provides in-depth accounts of the lives of some of those in the tree.

 Also check out my other site…

The Roll of Honour website  – which commemorates those in the Willis Tree who sacrificed their lives ‘for King and Country’ during the two  World Wars.

The information and images on this site come from many different sources, including a large number of fellow amateur researchers whose own family trees interlink with mine.  As a result we have been able to share data and thus expand our knowledge!

It is hoped that the information on this site will help others discover their ancestral roots and rediscover their living relatives.

You are free to view all information on this site. However, in order to view records of individuals who are still living you need to Request a User Account*.  If you already have an account you can Login here
Contact Me… if you have information, images or documents you think should be added to the site, or if you have any feedback!

I’d love to hear from you!