Proof of the Ancestry of Henry Willis of Monroe County, WV

By David W. Willis, July 28, 2003

On July 21, 2003, Bobby Willis, a descendant of Henry Willis of Monroe County, WV, announced that his DNA had been found to match the DNA of the descendants of John Willis and Isaiah Willis of Franklin County, Va. The test results proved that Henry Willis of Monroe County, WV was the son of Henry Willis of York County, PA (born about 1704 in Chester County, PA, died in 1761 in York County, PA) and Mary, whose last name is currently unknown.

Henry Willis of York County, PA had four sons and four daughters. His fours sons were Henry (born about 1732 in Chester County, PA, died 1812 in Monroe County, WV), John (born about 1734 in Chester County, PA, died 1800 in Franklin County, VA), Isaiah (born about 1742 in Chester County, PA, died after 1829 in Franklin County, VA), and Joseph (born about 1730 in Chester County, PA, died in 1809 in Lincoln County, KY). His four daughters were Ann, Elizabeth, Martha, and Mary.

The father of Henry Willis of York County was John Willis (born in 1667/68 in London, England, married Esther Brinton, died in 1745 in Chester County, PA). John’s father was Henry Willis (born 1628 in the town of Devizes in Wiltshire, England, married Mary Pearce, died in 1714 in Westbury, Long Island, New York). The immigrant Henry Willis was a Quaker minister who immigrated to Long Island about 1674, where he settled on land that is now the town of East Williston, Long Island. The father and grandfather of the immigrant Henry Willis lived in the town of Devizes, in Wiltshire, England. The family were members of the St. Denys Church in Warminster, Wiltshire, which recorded the family’s christenings, marriages, and burials.

The link from the VA Willises to the PA Willises has been confirmed through matching handwriting, a family recollection, a census record, and consistency of VA and PA names and timelines. Research on the family is still in progress and new information is still being found. For example, it is almost certain, but not yet confirmed, that Henry’s first wife was named Susanna Stanton and that they were married in York County in 1757.

Bobby Willis’ announcement was the conclusion of decades of effort to find Henry’s origins. The successful conclusion of the research was aided by technology - the internet and DNA testing - that was not available to earlier researchers. The remainder of this document describes how Henry Willis’ ancestry was discovered and confirmed.

Henry Willis’ Brothers in Franklin County, Virginia

My gggg grandfather is Henry’s brother, John. John lived in Franklin County, VA for most of his life. Franklin County is about 70 miles east of Monroe County. While doing research on the family of my John Willis in Franklin County, I found evidence that Henry had been there.

Franklin County marriage records, land records, signatures on petitions, tax records, a will, and other records showed that several of the various early Willises in Franklin County were linked together. One group whose names were linked included the following:

John Willis and his wife, Phebe

Isaiah Willis and his wife, Catherine

Josiah Willis (no wife mentioned)

Henry Willis (no wife mentioned)

John Willis and his wife, Phebe

John owned over 1,000 acres in Franklin County. He died in 1800. John’s name appeared in numerous records. His wife Phebe’s name was listed on several of his land sale records and in his will. John was the only early Willis who left a will in Franklin County. We now know that John is one of Henry’s brothers.

Isaiah Willis

Research showed numerous connections between John Willis and Isaiah Willis in Franklin County. Isaiah was a fairly large land owner (over 400 acres). His land was located close to where John’s land was located.   Isaiah was witness to several of John’s land sales, was on a court record with John, and was a witness to John’s will. We now know that Isaiah Willis is Henry’s youngest brother.

Josiah Willis

Josiah never existed, in spite of the fact that his name is in several records. The name Josiah Willis was on the 1779 personal property tax list for Franklin County, on a published, typewritten land survey record, and on a typed list of marriages in which he was said to be the father of Rhoda Willis, who was married in 1792. On that same typed record, Isaiah Willis was said to have been the Surety for this marriage. It turns out, however, that Josiah Willis never existed. The names “Isiah” (a frequent alternate spelling of Isaiah) and “Josiah” are almost indistinguishable in the handwriting of the time. In all cases where a name was said to be Josiah and a copy of the actual handwritten record could be found and examined, a close inspection of the signature showed that the name was “Isiah” or “Isaiah,” not “Josiah.” There never was a Josiah.

Henry Willis

A Henry Willis, who we now know is our Henry Willis of Monroe County, was connected with John Willis in several records in Franklin County in the year 1779. This Henry appeared in Franklin County records only in the year 1779, and then disappeared. The records that Henry left showed without doubt that he was connected with John Willis. Henry appeared in the following four records in 1779.

(1) In 1779, the following were taxed in the same personal property tax group in Franklin County (then called Henry County):

Willis, Henry

Willis, Josiah (“Josiah” a misreading of “Isiah”)

Willis, John

(2) On May 10, 1779, Henry filed for a land patent in Franklin (Henry) County, the same day his brother, John, also filed for a land patent. Their land was adjacent. Henry's patent, which was recorded on Oct. 20, 1779, said:

"... for Henry Willis on a branch of Blackwater 62 acres of land ... in Hellam line ... Lewis Duesis line ... in Spanglers line ... to a Spanish oak in John Willis' line ..." (VA Land Office - Plats and Certificates 1779).

(3) On November 2, 1779, Isaiah, John, and Henry Willis signed Virginia Legislative Petition 408. (The names were signed by a clerk.)

(4) In Franklin (Henry) County Deed Books I and II, "a list of surveys made of Henry County from June 10, 1779 to June 10, 1780," "by John Dickenson and his associates," Henry's and John's names appear one after the other on this large, unalphabetized list. Henry was listed as owning 164 acres “on Blue Ridge” and John was listed as owning his land on Blackwater River.

The Franklin County Historical Society publishes a “Settlers Map” of Franklin County. The names of most of the early settlers of Franklin County in the mid to late 1700’s are written on the map on the particular location where they owned their land. The names of John Willis and Henry Willis both appear on this map, adjacent to each other.

The above records proved that John Willis and a Henry Willis were connected. But after 1779, Henry disappeared from Franklin (Henry) County and there was no record of where he went.

Henry’s Family in York County, PA

Early in 2002, I typed in the names “John Willis” and “Phebe” into the computer and did a search. The search turned up the following:

April 27, 1757. John Willis – Phebe Bennett, York County, Pennsylvania

Phebe’s maiden name – Bennett – made me sit up and take notice. My ggg grandfather’s name was “Bennett.” Bennett was not a very common first name in those years. Could my Bennett Willis have been named after Phebe’s family?

Further searches showed that the John Willis who married Phebe Bennett had brothers in Pennsylvania named Henry and Josiah. He also had another brother, named Joseph, and four sisters. His parents’ names were Henry and Mary. Further searching on the internet, and correspondence with a Willis researcher named Leslie Potter, who lived in Chester County, PA, revealed that this Willis family had been documented by the great Quaker genealogist Gilbert Cope and by others, and that the family descended from a Quaker minister named Henry Willis, who immigrated to Long Island, NY sometime in the 1660’s.

Finding Henry Willis

Where had Henry gone when he left Franklin County in 1779? A search for Henry Willises in the western area of Virginia turned up the following:

(1) A Methodist circuit rider named Henry Willis who had been active in Pittsylvania County, VA and other areas of southwestern VA in the late 1770’s and early 1780’s.

(2) A Henry Willis who lived in the Clinch River area of Washington County, VA.

(3) The Henry Willis who settled in Greenbrier (Monroe) County.

In late 2002, I discovered Oma’s Web. I got in touch with Oma, who put me in touch with several others of Henry’s descendants who were active family researchers, including Almeda Lappin and Candy Grant. Over the next few months, we tried to determine if there was a link between Henry Willis of Monroe and the Willises of Franklin County. Some links were found, but they were not strong enough to prove the relationship.

One link, already mentioned, was the list of Franklin County land owners. On this list, next to John Willis’ name, there was listed a Henry Willis who was stated to own land “on Blue Ridge.” There was also the following record of the marriage of my ggg grandfather, Bennett Willis:

November 13, 1800. Bennett Willis – Katrina Nossaman, Monroe County, VA

What was Bennett doing in Monroe County in 1800? Bennett was recorded in the personal property tax records of Franklin County in 1799 and the years preceding, and also in 1801 and the years following, but not in 1800. In 1800, but in no other year, Bennett was recorded in the personal property tax records of Monroe County. What link was there that would cause a country boy like Bennett to travel to marry a German girl living 70 miles and several counties away? Further research showed that Katrina’s father, Johann Conrad Nossaman, was a neighbor of Henry, as was Thomas Dunn, who was the bondsman for the marriage. Both John Nossaman and Thomas Dunn had links with Henry in Monroe County court and land records.

There was, in addition, a 1787 Franklin County court record was found in which John Willis was said to have “removed to Greenbrier.” (Monroe County spun off from Greenbrier in 1799.)

The evidence was pointing to Henry Willis of Monroe County being the missing brother. The internet had taken us part of the way to solving the ancestry of Henry Willis of Monroe County. DNA testing took us the rest of the way.

DNA Test

Four months ago, in March 2003, I started a Willis project at FamilyTreeDNA (see their website at FamilyTreeDNA.com). I would like to share some basics about DNA testing that I have learned over the past few months in my role as the FamilyTreeDNA’s Administrator for the Willis project.

Explanation of DNA Testing of Males

People’s DNA is stored in their chromosomes. Males have one particular chromosome that females do not have. It is called the Y chromosome.

A male’s Y chromosome is passed down from father to son to son to son… ad infinitum. It is not passed from father to daughter, just from father to son. As it is passed down, it remains unchanged except for occasional mutations.

Remember the controversy about whether descendants of Thomas Jefferson’s slave, Sally Hemmings, were descended from Thomas Jefferson? The Y chromosome of the son of a son of a son …. of the slave was tested and found to match the Y chromosome of a son of a son of a son … of a known male Thomas Jefferson descendant. This should have ended the controversy, except that some believe that it may have been Thomas Jefferson’s uncle, not Thomas Jefferson himself, who fathered Sally Hemmings’ son.

The First Willis DNA Tests

On their standard test, FamilyTreeDNA will test 12 locations (“markers”) on the Y chromosome. In their deluxe test, they will test 25 markers. They then compare the results to all the other males they have tested (over 10,000) and report the results.

The first two Willises to have their Y-DNA tested were Jerry Willis (a descendant of Henry’s brother, Isaiah Willis) and me (descendant of Henry’s brother, John Willis). Jerry and I chose to have all 25 markers tested. The results showed that we matched on 24 of the 25 markers. This proved that we were related, which was no surprise. The one marker we did not match on was later determined to be due to a mutation that occurred somewhere in my John Willis line. The fact that Jerry and I had one marker different is normal, given that 300 years have passed since the common ancestor (Henry Sr.) was born.

Bobby Willis, a descendant of Henry of Monroe County, matched Jerry on all 25 markers.  The actual results for Bobby, Jerry, and me are shown in the following table. The identifying numbers at the top are the scientific identifications of the markers tested. The numbers below to the scientific identifiers are the test results for each marker.

Name	A	3	3	1	3	3	3	4	3	4	3	3	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
	n	9	9	9	9	8	8	2	8	3	8	9	8	5	5	5	5	5	4	3	4	4	6	6	6	6
	c	3	0		1	5	5	6	8	9	9	2	9	8	9	9	5	4	7	7	8	9	4	4	4	4
	e					a	b				|		|		a	b							a	b	c	d
	s										1		2
Bobby	Henry	6	8	6	5	9	9	4	5	3	6	6	7	7	6	8	7	8	9	7	9	7	11	14	14	15
Jerry	Isaiah	6	8	6	5	9	9	4	5	3	6	6	7	7	6	8	7	8	9	7	9	7	11	14	14	15
David	John	6	8	6	5	9	9	4	5	3	6	6	7	7	6	8	7	8	9	7	9	7	11	14	15	15

Anyone interested in a more technical explanation is encouraged to visit the FamilyTreeDNA.com website.

The "Deep Ancestry" of our Willis line

The primary goal of DNA testing for genealogy is, of course, as a genealogy tool. It provides support for paper evidence.    But there is another benefit as well.   FamilyTreeDNA can look at your DNA and tell you what "Haplogroup" your DNA fits into.  Your "Haplogroup" tells you in a general way where the male ancestor originated thousands of years ago (East Asia, Middle East, etc).  The DNA for our Willis line fits into Haplogroup "I" (the letter I).    The "deep ancestry" of Haplogroup I is Scandinavian.   Haplogroup I is common in England.  This is because for several hundred years, starting in the 800’s, Norsemen were migrating to England.   In 1066, the Normans, who had been living on the French coast of Brittany for a couple of hundred years, and who were primarily of Scandinavian origin, attacked England in the great Norman invasion.  Many of them settled in England.

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