OLLIS FAMILY HISTORY

This page is dedicated to the history of the branch of the Ollis family from Keynsham, Somerset.

NOTE : Most of the links on this page referenced Prentis Ollis's website on Rootsweb Freepages, but this has now disappeared. Pending further investigation, only the links shown in bold will now work correctly.

The Ollis name is relatively rare, and appears to have a number of potential derivations. Several branches of the family (including that of Peter Ollis) appear to derive their name from variants of names such as Hollis and Hollas with a 'dropped' H, while a possible Huguenot origin has also been suggested for some other lines. The name spread from Europe to the New World, and a number of branches in the US have been well researched. Prentis Ollis, a descendant of Sebastian 'Boston' Ollis who emigrated from the UK to North Carolina in the 18th century, had created a comprehensive website summarising previous research on the family and linking to numerous Ollis resources (see more below), although the site has now disappeared and consequently the links are broken, with only a slimmer version of some of the related trees found online.

Our line of interest currently begins with Anthony Ollis who married Sarah Pinker at Bitton in 1756, before moving to Keynsham where his children were all baptised. His descendants in Keynsham and beyond have been summarised by Richard Wiltshire on the Ollis website. Richard's notes also include extracts of all Ollises and Oldises found in the Keynsham parish registers (baptisms 1628-1885, marriages 1629-1900, and burials 1628-1857, with some small gaps). Other resources on the Ollis website of relevance to this branch of the family include summaries (compiled by Peter Ollis) of all Ollises in the GRO indices for Gloucestershire (for births 1837-1881, marriages 1837-1886, and deaths 1837-1877), and a broad summary of Somerset and Gloucestershire Ollis references compiled by Peter from a variety of sources.

Anthony Ollis's great-granddaughter Mary Anne (later Mary Elizabeth and then just Elizabeth) Ollis married Evan Lear at Bitton in 1861, and initiated a Lear descendant line there.

Anyone interested in further details of this branch of the Ollis family, or who is able to provide additional details relevant to this branch, is invited to contact the coordinator for this page Ian Hall.

This page was last updated 09 January 2013